


On a Lonely Night

by alicialeila



Category: Southern Vampire Mysteries - Charlaine Harris
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2014-09-25
Packaged: 2017-12-04 14:49:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 63,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicialeila/pseuds/alicialeila
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the night of her ex-boyfriend's wedding, Sookie wants to let a little loose and ends up at a bar called Fantasia. There, she meets a hot bartender named Eric. What begins as a lonely night for Sookie ends up being the start of something truly amazing. AU/AH OOC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On a Lonely Night

On a Lonely Night

(Disclaimer: These wonderful characters belong to Charlaine Harris!)

 

Chapter 1: On a Lonely Night

 

SPOV

I felt a little wild, driving around Shreveport on a Saturday night, with no place in particular as my destination. I felt kind of like an adventurous girl in a movie, who drives nowhere just because she could. Sadly, my feelings of adventure were dampened by sadness when I thought about why I was currently driving further away from Bon Temps.

Bill.

You see, tonight Bill was getting married. That made me sad and angry for a couple of different reasons. First, Bill was my ex-boyfriend, and, actually, my only ex-boyfriend at that. My first love, my first lover, and the person that I planned on spending the rest of my life with. Those plans went right out the window when I found out he'd been cheating on me. Which brings me to my second reason for being upset: he was marrying Lorena, the very woman that Bill had been cheating on me with. She was also his ex-girlfriend, one he hadn't told me about. I guess I knew why, now. I found out he'd been seeing her for quite some time during out three year relationship. On weekends when he said he was travelling for business, he was really going to see Lorena in Seattle. Bill had not only cheated on me, but he had lied to me about a lot. So it's not like I was pining for him, or planning on getting back together with him; that's not at all why the thought of him getting married upset me. I just turned twenty-five, which meant that a lot of couples in my small town were getting married and having babies, if they hadn't already. And because of Bill I wouldn't have that for a long, long time – not to mention with extra baggage. But Bill got to have that. Bill got to have a huge, fancy wedding to which all of my friends were invited to. Except me, of course. I guess exes don't get invited to weddings. My friends didn't really want to go to the wedding, because they were team Sookie, but I knew it would be a huge event in Bon Temps since Bill came from old money. I told them to go and have fun. I would be okay.

I pulled into a parking lot before I started to cry. I let myself shed a few tears, and then decided that I deserved to have myself a little pity party tonight. Then, starting tomorrow, I would not give Bill another thought. Never again. I was on my own so I wouldn't have to worry about Amelia or Tara giving me crap for 'not being over' Bill, even though I was. I just wasn't over feeling humiliated and lonely.

I had pulled into a parking lot near a Toys R Us, but there was an awful lot of people in the parking lot, considering it was a Saturday night and the store was closed. But then I noticed that there was actually at the other end of the mall. It was called Fantasia. The door was black and I could see a red neon sign with the bar name on it. For some reason, I felt pulled towards it. It looked fun, which was something I hadn't had much of lately. But was I brave enough to walk into a bar by myself? Would I look like a loser? Oh, what the hell. I could just go in, have a quick drink, and take a look around? Maybe I'd find a new hang-out place to show Amelia, something different from Merlotte's. I was very relieved that I'd thrown on my red and white sundress today, instead of sweatpants or something. I didn't look fancy, but I figured that a dress was a dress. I dug through my purse looking for some eyeliner or something, since I hadn't put any makeup on. I pulled out a tube of light pink lip-gloss and some mascara, and quickly applied them. I looked fine, and it wasn't like I wore that much makeup when I went out anyways. I felt a little bit weird at the prospect of going to a bar all by myself, since I didn't really frequent them in the first place. Merlotte's didn't count, since I had worked there for most of my teenage life. But tonight, it felt like a night for change. I took a deep breath and got out of the car.

Fantasia really was very cool. Everything was decorated in black and red, and there was a dance floor and there were people dancing, but it wasn't all crowded and gross like the few clubs I'd been to before. I looked around, and wondered if I should sit at a table. I glanced at the bar, and noticed a girl was getting up from her stool. Score! I sat myself up at the sleek, black bar, and felt my phone vibrate in my purse. I had a text from Amelia.

_Sook, u ok?_

I sighed. I had just sent her a quick reply, telling that I was fine, when I heard it.

"What can I get you, sweetheart?" a deep voice asked suggestively. I was just about to ask just exactly who he was calling sweetheart when I looked up at the source of the voice. My words died in my throat. Oh, good lord. He was gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous; he was tall and fit, with piercing blue eyes and blonde hair. He wore a sexy smirk on his face, and a tight black v-neck on his chest. Oh my.

"Um, I'll have a gin and tonic please," I replied politely. I felt my cheeks flush. I'd never seen such a handsome man, never mind talked to one! His smirk grew more pronounced, telling me that he probably knew the source of my blush. When he put the drink in front of me, I thanked him with a smile and gave him his money.

"Well aren't you sweet?" he asked, looking at me with amusement.

"Not really," I replied quietly. I blushed again. Dammit! He let out a deep chuckle, and the sight of a genuine smile on his perfect face took my breath away. Oh well, if nothing else interesting happened tonight, at least I would be able to tell Amelia that I made a sexy bartender laugh; Ames would appreciate that. I watched him walk away to go serve another customer, and noticed his butt was perfect too.

I sipped on my drink and just watched people for I don't know how long. I watched as girls in tiny outfits hung over men who were clearly not interested in them. I watched as smarmy guys hit on girls who were clearly not interested in them either. There were a few couples that I could see really flirting with each other, off of the dance floor of course. I wasn't brave enough to dance in a bar by myself, that's for sure. I politely declined a request to dance, offered by a hairy, sweaty guy who stood way too too close to me.

Most people just looked kind of desperate to me. Was this my future, whenever I felt I was ready to date again? Just wait to be preyed upon at a bar? I really, really hoped not.

"Is he late?" a voice asked from behind me. I turned back around and was face to face with the sexy bartender again.

"Is who late?"

"Your boyfriend? Or your date, or whatever?"

"Oh, I, um… I'm not here on a date," I said. I wondered if the alcohol was kicking in, because I managed not to blush. Go, Sookie!

"Ah," he smirked, "girls' night, then?"

"Nope," I smiled.

"Hmmm," he furrowed his brows as if he was thinking very hard. "Looking for a sugar Daddy? Because I think you're at the wrong bar for that," he teased.

I giggled. Was he flirting with me? Or did he just feel bad for me, sitting here by myself and not making any effort to talk to anyone?

"No," I replied, the smile starting to fall from my face, "I'm here to do that whole 'drink your problems away' thing."

"Really?" he asked, looking skeptical, and I nodded. "Well then, sweetheart, I think you're gonna need something a little bit stronger than a gin and tonic." He got out a shot glass and pour a clear looking liquid into it, and placed it in front of me with salt and a lime.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Tequila."

"You want me to do a shot of tequila? Shouldn't I not be mixing alcohol?" I didn't think I'd ever had tequila before, probably because I'd heard all of the horror stories about my brother Jason's experiences with it.

"It's just one shot, it won't kill you," he shrugged.

"You're a horrible bartender," I laughed. He grinned at me.

"Do I have to use the salt and the lime, or whatever? Can't I just take the shot?" I asked.

"It doesn't really matter how you do it," he laughed, "as long as you do."

"Okay," I said. I raised the glass in the air and said, "to Bill and Lorena!"

I knew he wouldn't get my joke, but that didn't really matter to me at the moment. I quickly brought the glass to my lips and swallowed the shot of tequila. It didn't go down very smoothly, it burned a little, but it didn't taste so bad. I slammed the glass back down proudly.

"You know," he smiled, "if you wanted to tell me about your problems, I'd be happy to listen. Bartenders are pretty much therapists, after all."

"That's not just in the movies?" I smiled.

"Nope," he grinned at me.

I snickered. "It's just that," I said, trying to put my thoughts together, "I don't really want to dwell on it, you know?"

He nodded and said, "Yeah, but venting doesn't really mean dwelling. And plus, I'm an objective outsider. Have you talked about your shit with one of those?"

I wasn't really sure why he was so interested in my problems. Was this a game for bartenders or something?

"Well the short version," I began, "is that my ex is getting married tonight. Well he did, I guess," I looked at the time.

"Ah. And you're still in love with him?"

"Oh sweet Jesus no," I shook my head, "I'm really not. He cheated on me and he lied to me. I just… I don't know." I was having a hard time articulating what I was feeling.

"He's happy right now, and you're not?" He asked, leaning towards me.

"Maybe that's it."

"You will be," he said quietly, and for a moment his eyes were really intense, burning into mine. I looked down at my hands, which were clasped together. The bartender turned around for a second, and placed another drink in front of me.

"Gin and tonic?" he asked.

"Thanks," I smiled.

"Eric," a woman's voice called. The bartender looked over at her. She was beautiful, with pale blonde hair, and wore a tight black pencil skirt, black blouse, and the highest heels I'd ever seen a woman wear, outside of fashion magazines. She tilted her head at him, and he nodded.

"Excuse me," he smirked at me, and then left to follow the woman into some sort of office, I imagined.

So, the sexy bartender's name was Eric. Eric the Sexy Bartender. There was a pretty big chance that he would feature in some of my fantasies. Or all of them.

Another man took Eric's place behind the bar, but he wasn't nearly as good-looking as Eric. He had long dark hair, and lots of tattoos on his arms. I guessed he was Native American.

I sighed. Part of me was disappointed that Eric left, because I was kind of enjoying our banter. The more rational side of me, however, chastised the part of me that was hopeful that he wasn't actually treating me like he would any other sad looking girl sitting in front of him at the bar. I knew I wasn't hideous or anything, but I certainly wasn't in Eric's league. I doubted there were many women that were.

I returned to my people watching. I noticed how much drunker people seemed now than before. I giggled to myself, knowing that I was a bit drunker too.

Just as I finished my second gin and tonic of the night, a large muscular man sat on the recently empty stool beside me.

"Hey," he said, flashing me a smile that seemed like a lame imitation of Eric's.

"Hello," I replied politely. He looked down at my empty glass.

"Can I get you another drink, babe?"

Babe?! I looked at the guy. He was huge, bald, and had weird purple-y eyes. I gave him a polite smile.

"Oh, um, you don't have to do that…"

"Quinn," he supplied his name.

"Quinn. You don't have to do that. Thank you, though."

"I insist, babe. You look like you could use some company."

Well I wasn't going to argue with him on that one, but I was willing to bet that my idea of 'company' and his were probably pretty different. But I was at a bar, wasn't I? Maybe this Quinn guy would be sweet and we could have a nice conversation. I told him I was drinking a gin and tonic, and he signaled at the bartender to get me another. I thanked him when he placed the glass in front of me.

Quinn asked me all the generic questions; where I'm from, what I do. I told him I was born and raised in Bon Temps, and that I taught the third grade at Bon Temps elementary school. He told me he worked at a gym part time, and did part time event planning. During our talk, Quinn moved closer and closer to me, and was really staring at me. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable. Creeper alert!

"So, babe, do you wanna dance?" he asked with a leer.

"Oh, no thanks," I tried to smile at him politely.

"Come on babe, it'll be fun," he started to run his hands down my arm. I felt like I was going to puke, partly from his inappropriate touching, and partly from having my third drink.

"No, Quinn, really," I attempted to back away from him. But then his hand clasped my arm, and he started to pull me with him as he stood up. Oh my god, was he going to try and literally drag me to the dance floor? I started to panic internally a bit.

That was until a figure approached and took Quinn's hands off of me. It was Eric.

"Quinn, can you please not fucking manhandle my customers?"

Quinn looked pissed. "Eric this is none of your goddamn business," he all but snarled.

"You know that it is," Eric retorted. "Do you want me to get security to throw you out on your fucking ass?"

Quinn huffed and shot me a dirty look, but he did walk away.

"Thank you," I breathed, rubbing my arm where Quinn had grabbed me. His eyes travelled to where I was rubbing.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"Oh no, I'm fine," I said shakily. "And it's not like I'm morally opposed to dancing or anything. But he was already giving me the creeps and all we were doing was talking. I didn't really feel like…"

"You don't have to explain it to me," Eric smiled, "Quinn is a douchebag. He thinks that harassing girls is some kind of flirting strategy."

"What a charmer," I said dryly.

Eric sat down at the stool Quinn had vacated, and I sat down at my spot. He made some kind of signal at the bartender, and he quickly brought another gin and tonic for me and a beer for Eric.

"Are you on your break, or something?" I asked.

"I'm done as bartender for the night."

"Oh," I replied, and took a long sip of my drink to try and hide the stupid grin that had creeped up on my face.

"Yep, so now I'm free to help you drink all your problems away," he teased. "Eric Northman, at your service."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Sookie Stackhouse," I giggled, extending my hand to him. His giant hand swallowed mine as he shook it.

"So, Sookie," he leaned in a bit closer to me, but not so close that it made me uncomfortable, "would you like some more tequila?"

We spent the rest of the night drinking and talking. I told him about Bill and Lorena, about how I'd found out about their affair. I'd accidentally stumbled upon some e-mails when I'd used Bill's computer to check my own. I'd been devastated to find out that they'd had sex, that they'd had sex quite regularly actually, but there was other hurtful information in them too. When Lorena had asked when Bill was going to dump me, he said that he wasn't sure – he'd only dated me for the 'chase' at the beginning, knowing that I was so inexperienced presented him with a challenge in all of my "wholesomeness", and he eventually had developed 'real' feelings for me. That meant that the first time we made love, the first time I'd ever made love, he didn't actually care about me; he was winning a prize or something. I didn't tell Eric I was a virgin of course, but he still understood why I was angry: Bill had used me, he had lied to me about his feelings for me so I'd sleep with him. Maybe he developed feelings at some point along the way, but he still betrayed me. Eric interrupted me at all the right times, calling Bill an asshole and a fucking twat.

Eventually we did stop talking about Bill. We talked about random things, like TV and movies. He talked about his love of CSI-type shows, and I told him how obsessed I was with the food network. He told me funny stories about working at Fantasia, and pointed out all the weird 'regulars' he recognized. One man, Eddie, reminded me a bit of a man version of Jane Bodehouse, a regular at Merlotte's, and it made me laugh uncontrollably. I contrasted his stories with my 'adventures' at Merlotte's, where the biggest commotion I had ever witnessed was a rowdy redneck who was impatient for another pitcher of beer or a squeeze of my butt.

Eric didn't really talk much about his personal life, which I suppose I understood. I was a customer, after all, and even if his shift was over I could understand he didn't want his business spread around his workplace. I just appreciated that he was even talking to me. At all.

He really was gorgeous…

I had never been a big drinker, and alcohol had always made me sleepy, so it wasn't much of a surprise when my eyelids started feeling a bit heavy. Even though I was really, really enjoying spending time with my sexy bartender, I mean Eric, I was ready to go home and crawl into my comfy bed. I didn't even know what time it was.

"Sookie?" I heard him ask, as he brushed a strand of hair off my face.

"Mhmm?" I replied with a smile. I liked his fingers on my cheek.

"Would you like me to call you a cab?" He chuckled

"Ye-es please," I answered with a little bit of a yawn. I probably would have blushed if I wasn't so sleepy.

The last thing I remembered was being snuggled up on a black leather couch, a fleece blanket wrapped around me, and being at the perfect angle to ogle Eric's butt as he walked away.

My Sexy Bartender.


	2. Just Stay Here Tonight

Chapter 2: Just Stay Here Tonight

 

EPOV

I needed to talk to Pam again, so I left Sookie in my office while she waited for her cab to get there. The girl really couldn't handle her liquor, but it was cute. All of a sudden she was yawning and blinking hard to keep herself awake.

"Sookie?" I'd asked, pushing a strand of hair off her face.

"Mhmm?" She replied, all smilely. Her eyes were half closed.

"Would you like me to call you a cab?" I chuckled.

"Ye-es please," she'd answered with a cute little yawn.

"Come on," I'd said, offering her my hand.

"Hmm?" she'd asked.

"I'll call you a cab, and you can wait in the office. In Peace," I smiled.

"Okay," she'd yawned again, and took my hand. Hers were so tiny.

I settled her on the couch, and dialed the number which, after years of working at a bar, had been seared into my memory. The cab wouldn't be long, since the company was located pretty close to the bar.

"I'll be back in a sec, Sookie," I said, realizing I had evaded Pam pretty much all night after my shift as 'bartender' had been over.

"Mhmm," she murmured, already falling asleep.

I walked back out into the bar, looking around for Pam. She was flirting with a group of college-aged girls, who I don't think realized they were being flirted with.

"Pamela," I called.

"One minute, ladies," Pam purred.

"You were looking for me, Pam?" I asked.

"Yes. Who's your friend?" she asked, with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged.

"She's just a girl at the bar, Pam."

"No," she smirked, "I know what you look like when you're in panty-melting mode. And that wasn't it. You looked like you were being… nice," she finished, with a look of distaste, as if the word 'nice' was a gross one.

I rolled my eyes. Fuck, was it that weird for me to be nice to someone?

"Yes, Pamela, I understand the concept is foreign to you," I said, " but you should really try it sometime."

"Right," she snorted, "I'll be  _nice_  to people when you get married, buy a golden retriever, and have little Northman babies."

Touché. I wasn't exactly known for my ability to, as they say, commit. I didn't really much see the point. Frankly, I could fuck whoever I wanted to fuck. Women came to me easily, especially working at a bar. And I hadn't really met anyone that was worth keeping around. It was easier that way, really. Anyways, Pam was just as bad of a 'ladykiller' as I was.

"Whatever you say Pam," I said as I walked away. I was sure that Sookie's cab was there already.

I walked into my office, and Sookie was asleep on the couch, with a  _Fantasia_  blanket wrapped around her tiny body. She really was adorable. Long blonde hair, wide blue eyes, pink lips, and fucking gorgeous curves. Mmm. She was snoring softly, and it made me smile. It was a shame that I had to wake her up. I bent down to her level and whispered her name softly.

"Sookie," I whispered, "wake up."

She didn't even stir.

"Sookie," I brushed her cheek with my fingertips. She nuzzled into my hand. I didn't want to wake her up since she looked so peaceful, but I couldn't very well put her in a cab while she was asleep. Since I didn't have to close the bar tonight, I would just bring her home with me and let her sleep in the guest room. I would drive her back to her car tomorrow. I ignored all the questions that the little voice in the back of my head was asking, as to why the fuck I gave a shit, why I wouldn't just wake her. And why I would bring her to my house…

I grabbed her little purse, and gathered her up in my arms, still in the blanket. I held her against me, and she nuzzled into my chest. Sookie was apparently a very snuggly drunk.

Luckily there was an exit close to the office, so I wouldn't have to walk through the bar with a snoozing Sookie in my arms. I  _really_  didn't want Pam to see me. She would call me pussywhipped.

She was light in my arms. My keys were easily accessed in my pockets, and I unlocked the doors to my Corvette. I struggled a bit to open the door, but managed to, and then gently placed her in the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt.

The drive to my house really wasn't that long. I really, really hoped that Sookie didn't hate me for bringing her to my house. I didn't think she would, it's not like I planned to take advantage of her while she slept, but she seemed so innocent that I thought maybe she'd feel weird about spending the night at a stranger's house. Oh well, I would deal with that in the morning.

I pulled up into my garage and turned off the corvette. Keeping my keys in my hands, I gathered Sookie in my arms again. I tried to ignore how fucking awesome she felt there, and how awesome it felt when her arms wrapped around my neck. I unlocked the door, and walked straight to the guest room that was beside my bedroom. I placed her on the bed, but she wouldn't unwrap her arms from around my neck. I smiled involuntarily.

"Sookie," I whispered, "time to get into bed."

She finally let go of me, so I took off her shoes. I pulled down the sheets and comforter and helped her slide into bed. I even kind of tucked her in.

"Good night, min lilla Sookie," I whispered as I brushed hair away from her face. I'm not really sure where that came from.

"Night Eric," she whispered back sleepily, but I was sure she hadn't woken up. I made sure there was a glass of water and a bottle of Tylenol beside her on the nightstand. I didn't know Sookie very well but I imagined that she wasn't used to drinking that much, and that she would probably need it.

It was not even 2 a.m. but I figured I could probably fall asleep. I brushed my teeth and changed out of my clothes, but kept my boxers on incase Sookie woke up in the middle of the night and came to find me. I slept naked, but didn't want to make Sookie uncomfortable if she needed me. It would be pretty funny though. I liked to see her blush.

My thoughts, as I tried to fall asleep, centered on my little Southern Belle. She'd interested me as soon as I'd seen her. She wasn't dressed like most of the women who came to the bar, in glittery dresses or booty shorts. Rather, she was wearing a pretty little red and white sundress. I'd wondered if she was lost and looking for directions. But curiously, she had sat at the bar. I tried to flirt with her, but she was just so shy and… sweet. She wasn't really talking to anyone, and she didn't seem like she was waiting to be picked up either because she'd rejected a couple of drink and dance offers. Seeing that fucktard Quinn manhandle her just pissed me off, and I seriously just wanted to throw him out of my bar myself.

And when she told me about her douchebag of an ex, I just wanted to cheer her up. She was too sweet to be sad. I didn't mean to get her drunk or anything, but I thought she deserved to let loose a bit. There was something about her. I tried not to think about how out of character these feelings were for me.

She was beautiful, and she was asleep in my house, I thought happily, as I drifted off into a deep sleep.

 

SPOV

I could feel the headache even before I opened my eyes. And I could taste that awful cotton-mouth thing too. Sweet baby Jesus, what had I done last night? Strangely, though, I was comfy… too comfy. I slowly opened one eye, then the other, and… had no clue where I was.  _What the hell?_

I was in a bedroom. A very nice, very classy bedroom. Everything was modern and beige and clean. And no wonder I was so comfy, the bed was huge, the mattress was squishy, and the pillows were fluffy. I looked over at the bedside table and saw that there was a huge glass of water and a bottle of Tylenol sitting there, just waiting for me.  _I had drank a lot last night, hadn't I?_ And suddenly I remembered…

Eric. Oh my lord! Was I at Eric's house? Had the sexy bartender taken me back to his place? I started to panic a little bit. I knew that nothing had  _happened_  since I was still in my dress and all. And Eric didn't really strike me as the kind of guy who would take advantage of a sleeping woman, especially after the way he talked about that guy… Quinn. But I was still possibly at his house! It would make the most sense, since he was pretty much the last thing that I remembered.

I sat up, and took a Tylenol, and chugged the glass of water. It would probably be pretty helpful, I figured, especially if I had to deal with Eric. I was sure I was about to be embarrassed like I'd never been before. I crawled out of the bed, and tried to make it as best as I could. Gran had raised me be to be polite, after all. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and cringed. My hair was all tangled and matted, and the little bit of mascara I had put on last night was all smudged on my face. I looked a mess. I glanced around the room looking for my little purse. I was pretty sure I had a hair tie in there, which would certainly come in handy. It was sitting on the dresser. I grabbed it, and opened the door as quietly as I could. I really, really wanted to find a bathroom before I ran into Eric.

I peered out into the hallway and saw that there was a little bathroom right beside my room. Score! I quickly ran into it and shut the door quietly, and locked it. The bathroom reminded me very much of the room I stayed in last night; modern, clean and masculine, though it was decorated in greys and silvers.

I tried to untangle the mess that was my hair with my fingers, but that didn't work very well. I opened up a cabinet drawer and found a little brush there, and some toothpaste. Both would come in handy. I quickly brushed my hair, then dug through my purse, feeling relieved when I found my little purple hair tie. I threw my hair up into a high ponytail. I splashed some warm water on my face and tried to get the black smudges under my eyes under control. I grabbed the little tube of toothpaste and put a dab on my finger, just to try and get the yucky taste out of my mouth. After I was done brushing and rinsing, I cupped my hands and took a nice, long drink of cool water from the faucet. I was feeling almost human again! I grabbed my lip gloss from my purse and put a little bit on.

Then I saw that my phone was flashing in my purse and… oh no. Amelia. I grabbed it and saw that I had 7 missed calls and a whole bunch of texts.

_(11:48 pm) Sook, u ok?  
_

_(12:26 am) Sookie are you there?_

_(1:08 am) Sookie?_

(2:15 am) _Sookie_!

_(2:24 am) SOOKIE STACKHOUSE! I swear to god you better call me!_

_(10:17 am) Ok Stackhouse where the hell are you?!_

Shoot! Amelia had been freaking out all night last night, and this morning when she realized that I hadn't come home! And it was already past eleven! I didn't want to call her incase Eric heard my voice and, um, came looking for me or something. So shot her a quick message.

_Ames I'm fine, I swear! Sorry I didn't call u! I'll c u later, k? xoxo_

I shoved my phone back into my purse, and took one last look at myself in the mirror. I looked fine enough, I guessed, to go out there and face Eric. I quietly left the bathroom and crept down the hallway. I heard a deep voice, and smelled a really yummy smell, and figured those would lead me to him. And they did. He was standing over the oven top, flipping eggs. He was also on the phone.

"Yes, Pamela," he said, in an irritated voice. I imagined he rolled his eyes. "I know," he practically growled into the phone, " _Pam_. I know. Now can you please leave me alone? I'll see you later." He let out a huff of air in response to whatever the person said. "Yes, I'll be at the bar later. Bye." He hung up the phone and set it on the counter. I wondered what they'd been talking about, to have made him so grumpy.

I stepped out of the hallway and into the brightness of the kitchen.

"Um, Eric?" I said softly. Not a particularly confident greeting, but hey.

He turned around and once again I was confronted by his gorgeousness. Holy moly. He was wearing dark jeans and a light grey v-neck. Boy, was he tall. And he was grinning slyly at me.

"Well hello Miss Stackhouse," he smirked, "how are you feeling this morning?"

"Oh, I'm fine," I replied airily, trying not to blush, "thanks for the Tylenol."

"You're very welcome," he replied, still smirking. "Are you hungry? I made some eggs, bacon, and pancakes."

"Wow," I smiled, walking towards him, "this looks amazing."

"Well, I figured you needed  _something_ to soak up all that booze," he grinned at me. This time I did blush. He chuckled, obviously pleased that he affected me. He handed me a plate, a very full plate.

"Thank you," I murmured, still a bit embarrassed.

"You're welcome," he smiled warmly at me. "Have a seat. Do you want some coffee?"

"Yes please," I replied politely, trying to hide the fact that I was actually dying for coffee. I took a seat at the counter, and Eric placed a cup of coffee in front of me. I thanked him, and stirred in a little bit of sugar and cream. I took a sip and tried not to moan, it tasted so good. He sat right across from me.

"You're kitchen is really beautiful," I said, while cutting into my pancakes. I was aiming for a bit of small talk, since I felt a bit intimidated by his gaze. "Actually, your whole house is really beautiful."

"Thanks," he said politely. Well, so much for small talk.

"How long have you lived here?" I tried again.

"Um, almost five years now," Eric replied, sipping on his cup of coffee. I nodded, digging into my food. It was really delicious. I was trying to figure out how to bring up the most obvious question, what the heck I was doing at his house!

"So, um," I began in between bites, "how exactly did I, you know, end up…"

"Here?"

"Yes," I tried to avoid eye contact. Eric chuckled.

"Well, last night you started to get pretty sleepy, so I brought you into the back room and let you doze on the couch while I called a cab for you. I left the room for all of ten minutes, and when I got back you were pretty much passed out. I couldn't wake you up. I couldn't very well send you away in a cab unconscious, now could I?" Eric smiled, and raised a lovely blonde eyebrow. "So I just brought you here, and put you in the guest bedroom. I…" For a moment he lost the confidence that radiated off him naturally. "I hope you're not like, freaked out or anything," he looks at me.

I smiled back at him. I felt a little bit touched that he had taken care of me last night, rather than leave me to security or even in the hands of some cab driver.

"No. Thank you," I said softly, almost in a whisper. Eric nodded slightly, and went back to drinking his coffee. I finished up my breakfast, and got up to start clearing the table.

"You don't have to do that," Eric tried to stop me, reaching for the dishes I was carrying.

"Please, Eric, let me help clean up," I smiled, "I really don't mind." He relented, and together we cleared the table and loaded the dishes into his stainless steel dishwasher. I grabbed a damp cloth from the sink and wiped down the counter, making sure to get all the sticky syrup spots. Once his kitchen was set to rights, we kind of just stared at each other for a moment.

"So, uh," I began, breaking the silence, "I guess I'll just call a cab, to bring me to my car at  _Fantasia_." I didn't want to interrupt Eric's day anymore than I already had.

"Oh, no, I can take you over."

"Eric, that's really sweet of you, but I don't want to be any more trouble than I've already been," I felt myself flush just a bit.

"Sookie, it's fine. I have to head over to the bar anyway."

"Oh," I said stupidly, trying to figure out why he would have to go there early on a Sunday afternoon. "Staff meeting?" I asked.

"No," he chuckled, "Pam and I are meeting with our accountant to go over the books."

"You're…" I squeaked. I was slightly dumbfounded. So Eric wasn't just a sexy bartender?  _Fantasia_  was  _his_ bar!

"Co-owner, yes. Don't look so surprised," he laughed, "you didn't seem so impressed by my bartending skills last night."

"That  _is_ true," I tried to laugh. I wasn't sure why, but I felt even more embarrassed that I'd fallen asleep not just at Eric's workplace, but at his actual bar. That he owned. Sweet Jesus! Eric watched me with a smile, as if I amused him.

"I'll be ready to go in a few minutes. Make yourself at home," he said, then wandered down the hallway.

I walked into the living room and sat on a big, comfy, navy blue couch. The décor in the living room was modern, but the colors were rich and lovely. Eric obviously had amazing taste, and the budget to go with it. But there weren't many personal effects lying around. I spotted a framed photograph across the room, and got up to go see it. In the photo was a tiny little blonde haired boy – Eric, I imagined – and he was bundled up in a snowsuit, cheeks flushed. Beside him on either side were a tall blonde man, and a beautiful blonde woman. His parents? The picture was adorable.

A few minutes later I heard Eric come up quietly behind me.

"Is that you?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's me and my parents in Sweden," he said softly, "it's where I grew up."

"Oh," I smiled, "do your parents still live there?"

"No," he said in a strange voice, so I turned to look at him. He kept looking straight at the picture. "They, uh, passed away."

"Oh, Eric, I'm so sorry," I said quickly. I knew personally how awkward of a conversation that was. I felt horrible for bringing it up, even though I had no way of knowing.

"It's fine," he replied.

"No, I, um," I was going to say I understood, but that seemed like an obnoxious thing to say about someone's personal experience. "I lost my parents too, so I know it can be, um, weird to talk about," I said, lamely. He looked at me and we had an odd moment of silence.

"You ready to go?" he asked finally.

"Yep," I replied, with a small smile.

Eric locked up and we headed into the garage, to get in his car: a cherry red Corvette. It made me smile. We pulled out of his driveway and I was surprised to see that he actually lived in a development. I would have imagined him living in a cool penthouse apartment or something, and told him so. He shrugged with a smile and explained that he liked the space. That made sense to me. He was a giant, after all.

During the drive back to  _Fantasia_  we chatted a bit. Eric told me about Pam, his business partner. He said she was bold and feisty, and didn't take crap from anyone, which was the kind of person you wanted to go into business with. I laughed and said she sounded a bit like Amelia. He asked me a bit about teaching, if I was bored since it was the summer and I was out of school. I told him that I always found stuff to keep me busy, whether it was working around the house or planning next term's lesson plans.

We pulled up into the  _Fantasia_ parking lot and I was surprised to see that my car was in employee parking. I gave Eric a questioning look.

"I got Longshadow to put your car in an employee spot," he told me, with a grin. "I didn't want you getting a ticket."

"Longshadow. He's the bartender with all the tattoos?" I guessed.

"That's the one," Eric laughed.

"Well thank you," I smiled back.

We got out of Eric's car and he walked me over to mine. I dug my keys out of my purse, then I twirled them nervously in my hands.

"Well thanks for everything, Eric," I said nervously, not really sure what to say.

"You're welcome," he smiled, inching closer towards me. "But try not to fall asleep in a bar again, okay? Not all bar owners are as noble as I am." He gave me a wink. I laughed, and felt myself blush.

He bent down and gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you around, Sookie," he said, giving me one of his signature smirks.

"Yeah, see you 'round," I replied weakly.

I watched him walk away, towards a red door that said "Employees Only". Only once he was in the building and out of sight did I unlock my car and plop myself in the front seat. I let out a long breath, one that I'd been holding onto.

What the heck just happened?


	3. Over My Head

Chapter 3: Over My Head

EPOV

I walked into Fantasia, hoping that Bruce, the accountant, would already be there and we could just get down to business. Of course, he wasn't. It was just me and Pam. I really, really wanted to avoid whatever conversation I was sure she wanted to have. Pam was sitting at our usual table, but stood when she saw me.

"So," she said, placing a hand on her hip, "where is she?"

"Where is who?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Sleeping Beauty," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Seriously Pam?" I scoffed at the nickname. I headed behind the bar to grab myself a water bottle from the mini bar.

"Seriously, Eric. Where is she?"

"She went home," I shrugged.

"What!" She cried, "I wanted to meet her!" She was practically pouting.

I rolled my eyes and took a long gulp of water.

"Well, when are we seeing her again?"

"We, Pam?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. When are youseeing her again?"

"I don't know," I shrugged.

"What do you mean you don't know?" She narrowed her eyes at me. "You at least got her number, right?"

I didn't say anything. I gave a half shrug.

"Well, what did you say to her?"

"Uh, see you around?"

"What the hell, Northman," she smacked the back of my head. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Jesus, Pam," I huffed, "yesterday you were making fun of me for being 'nice'. What the hell's gotten into you?"

"Christ, Eric, just because I like to give you shit doesn't mean I want you to end up being a lonely old man."

"I'm not lonely," I scoffed. This conversation was entering into territory that Pam and I did not usually enter. Emotional territory.

"Oh please. I know as well as you do that enthralling the vermin gets old, fast." She raised an eyebrow, challenging me to say any different. 'Enthralling the vermin' was our code for hooking up with women we met at the bar. And it was true that it got old fast. Once again I remained silent.

"Eric, last week you told me you were thinking about getting a dog. A freaking dog, Eric. Now don't tell me that's not some kind of red flag." She looked disgusted. Pam was not a dog person.

"Pam I told you, I have the room and…"

"No," she frowned, "as long as we are friends and business partners I will not let you become the old man version of the old cat lady."

I rolled my eyes. Only in Pam's drama queen, fashion-obsessed mind would my getting a dog mean I'm turning into some kind of recluse.

"So what exactly are you saying, Pam?"

"That you need a girlfriend instead," she said simply. I would have thought she was joking, but she said it with a straight face.

"I would have thought you'd prefer the dog," I snarked. But Pam remained eerily stoic.

"I'm serious, Eric."

"I don't do the whole 'dating' thing, Pam," I sighed, even though she very well knew that.

"Just like you don't bring women to your house?" She raised her eyebrow at me.

Touché. As a rule, I did not bring women to my place. When I met a woman I wanted to fuck we either went to her place, or rented a room at some hotel. For one, I didn't want any of the crazy fan girls at the club to know where I lived. And I saw no need to involve any one-night stands in my personal or private life. Pam was the only woman to ever step into my house. That was until last night.

I didn't try and argue with her.

"And then this morning," she looked at me, "I call you and find out that not only did you bring a girl home but you also cooked her breakfast?" She cracked a smile. Dammit, now I regretted begrudgingly telling her what I had been doing this morning.

"And?" I tried to remain unaffected.

"Come on, Eric. You've never brought a woman you've fucked-"

"I told you on the phone that we didn't-"

"I know," she grinned, "but come on, Eric. She's special."

"Oh Christ," I groaned. Now I felt like a fifteen year old boy having the safe sex talk.

"Look, Eric," Pam said, suddenly serious, "I know you haven't had a relationship since N-"

"Fuck, Pam, if we have to have this fucking ridiculous conversation can you please not go there?" I was deadly serious, too.

"Fine. I know you haven't had a relationship in a while. But are you seriously telling me that you never, ever want to have one? And there's obviously something different about this girl. So what's the problem?"

I had already admitted to myself that yes, there was something about Sookie. Yes, I was interested in more than a sexual relationship with her. But admitting that out loud, to Pam, was a different thing altogether. Besides, would Sookie even be interested in a relationship with me? Could I even do it, for her? She deserved so much more than another horrible relationship with another asshole. But what if that was all that I could offer her? Rather than voice those worries to Pam, I let out an exasperated sigh and a mumbled, "I don't know."

"Well don't you worry," she patted me on the shoulder, "I've got your back. I'll help you through this," she practically cackled with evil glee.

"Since when are you such a fucking matchmaker?" I asked.

"I'm bored," she shrugged. Fantastic.

"The next time that girl steps into this bar," Pam's eyes sparkled with mischief, "neither of you are leaving until you have her phone number and you've asked her out on a date. Mark my words, Northman."

 

SPOV

As I drove from Shreveport back to Bon Temps, I tried to make sense of what had just happened to me. So, I spent the night at a bar, drinking with a gorgeous bartender slash bar owner. I then passed out at said bar, and said bartender slash bar owner took me to his place and took care of me. Then served me a yummy breakfast in the morning. Then left me in the parking lot of said bar with a kiss on the cheek and a 'see you around'.

Okay. Did that mean that Eric liked me? Or did he provide some kind of service, where instead of a van that drives homeless people to a shelter, he takes drunk girls home and feeds them food? Did he feel bad for me, was I that much of a mess? I figured Amelia could shed some light on the situation. I didn't think she'd ever had quite my experience, but she did have more experience with guys than I did. And alcohol. She would definitely be awake, especially since I finally texted her back.

Amelia was my roommate, and we lived together in my Gran's old farmhouse. I'd met her one summer when I was in college, when I went down to New Orleans to visit my cousin Claudine. We got along great, even though we were pretty much polar opposites. About two years ago she decided she wanted to move out of New Orleans and away from her father, Copely Carmichael. They didn't get along very well, mostly because he was really snobby and controlling. Ames may be rich by virtue of her trust fund, but she wasn't a snob.

I pulled onto Hummingbird Road, and drove up to the house and parked in the back. I had butterflies in my stomach because I knew I was going to have to answer all of Amelia's questions. The back door was unlocked, so I figured that meant Ames was up and about.

She was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Sookie Stackhouse!" She cried, "Where the hell have you been?"

"Hi Ames," I said sheepishly. "How was the wedding?"

"Seriously? How was the wedding? You've been incommunicado for how long and you want to know about Bill's stupid wedding?" She glared at me.

"Yes," I shrugged, sitting down across from her, "I would like to know."

"It was too fancy," she rolled her eyes, "for Bon Temps. Every one was there. Even though Bill is friends with who, exactly? The food was weird and in tiny portions. And Lorena looked like an evil little creampuff in her dress."

"Ames!" I chided her. "You don't have spare my feelings, you know. You can tell me if something was nice."

"Oh don't worry, Sookie. You know I don't like Bill. You know I've never liked Bill. His wedding was an attempt at some grand, majestic ceremony and it failed. Epically." Okay, maybe Ames was a snob sometimes. It was true that she never liked Bill. The near three years that I was with him, she barely managed to hide it. In retrospect, I wish I'd have listened to her gut instead of mine.

"He only invited every single person in this town, minus you, for status," she continued her tirade, "and he didn't even manage to make the rounds of thank you without that sour-puss look on his face."

"Well," I shrugged, "at least they're on their honeymoon for two weeks, and we, I, won't have to run into them."

"Amen to that," Amelia agreed. "Okay now that I've given you the details, will you please tell me what happened last night?"

So I did. I told her about what possessed me to go into Fantasia. I told her about meeting Eric, drinking and flirting with him, and him saving me from Quinn the creeper. And how we flirted some more after.

"Holy shit Sookie," she interrupted with wide eyes, "did you have a one night stand last night?!" She seemed really excited by the idea.

"No, Ames," I sighed.

"Okay, sorry. Continue."

"Well I got sleepy at the bar, so he ended up bringing me to his house-"

"Sookie!"

"No! Nothing happened. I slept in his guest room. I had passed out in his office waiting for a cab!"

"I still can't believe you spent the night at a strange man's house."

"He wasn't strange," I blushed, "he was nice." And very, very gorgeous.

"Still, that's so unlike you. What happened in the morning?"

"He, um, made me breakfast." My blush grew deeper.

"Aw!" she teased me.

"Oh hush," I replied. "Then he dropped me off at my car, in the parking lot of the bar."

"Did he ask for your number?" She asked.

"No," I sighed, "he didn't."

"Hmm. Did he make a plan to meet up again?"

"No," I sighed again. I didn't really want to be reminded of that fact.

"Very odd." She looked like she was thinking.

"What do you… I mean, do you think he likes me?" I asked nervously.

"Sook he spent the night flirting with you and brought you to his house. Yes, I think he likes you."

"But?"

"I don't know. Maybe he doesn't date women he met at the bar? I mean he works there, and all."

"Um… actually, he owns it."

"What? Damn, Sook! Way to leave out that piece of information!"

"What," I replied defensively, "it doesn't change that much!"

"I guess not. But I think he must like you. I mean, he probably has women throwing themselves at him all the time. But he actually spent all night with you! And then some!"

"I… I don't really know what to think," I said honestly. I wanted to think that Eric was interested in me, but my rational side thought that the idea of a man that gorgeous having any interest in me was absolutely ridiculous.

"Well, we'll just have to go see," Ames said nonchalantly.

"What?!"

"Let's go to Fantasia," she said simply. "We'll go see this guy, see if he's interested in you. And you can make a move." She grinned at me evilly, and waggled her eyebrows.

"Ames don't be ridiculous! I'm gonna what, go stalk him?!"

"Sookie," she rolled her eyes, "come on. You've got nothing to lose. Either you'll get yourself a sexy new boyfriend or we'll have a fun night of drinking and dancing together. Please?" She was practically begging me.

"Okay," I relented.

"Awesome! We can go Thursday! I only work the late shift on Friday." Ames was helping out Sam at Merlotte's. Since she had all the money she needed she didn't really have to work, but she was a social butterfly who liked to get out of the house. Working at Merlotte's was like working in Bon Temps Central Station, and it gave her extra cash. I, of course, was out of school for the summer, so I didn't have anywhere to be on a Friday morning.

"Okay," I agreed weakly.

I was going back to _Fantasia_!


	4. There She Goes Again

SPOV

Thursday night came quickly, a little bit too quickly. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of my closet, freshly showered, hair loosely curled, trying to figure out what the heck I was gonna wear to the bar. I wanted to dress up a little bit more than I had last time I was there, obviously, but I didn't want to look like I was trying too hard either. Plus, comfort was clearly more of a priority for me than it was for some of the women I'd seen at Fantasia last time.

Amelia knocked on my door, and I called for her to come in. She was wearing a black miniskirt and a black sparkly tube top.

"You look good," I told her, because she did. She was really good with liquid eyeliner, too; her eye makeup was beautiful.

"Thanks," she smiled. "What are you going to wear?"

"I'm not sure," I sighed. I had pushed tonight to the back of my mind all week, and that included thoughts about what I wanted to wear. Now, though, I kind of wished I had planned ahead.

"Not another sundress," Amelia said firmly.

"I don't really have much else," I pouted.

"Do you want to borrow something of mine?"

"Um," I thought of a nice way to say this, "No thanks." We didn't really have the same taste.

Amelia narrowed her eyes at me. "Why?" she asked, "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing!" I said quickly. "I just want to look like… well, me."

She peered into my closet for a few seconds, and then pulled out some clothes hangers.

"What about this?" She held out a jean skirt.

"Denim?"

"We can dress it up," she shrugged.

I ended up wearing the skirt with a light pink silk tank. It had pretty lace around the neckline, and the light pink color set off my tan nicely. It did dress up the skirt a bit, and the skirt was short enough that I felt sexy, but it wasn't so short that I felt like I was going to flash people my lady bits. I wore my high wedge sandals, kept my hair down loose, and put on a bit of makeup. All in all, I felt like I looked good enough to see Eric again.

"You look hot," Amelia nodded in approval.

We debated over whether we should take a car or call a cab. I decided I would be designated driver this time, because I didn't want to drink all that much. I would have one drink, then stick to soda or water. While alcohol might loosen me up, I wanted to be sober for this interaction with Eric.

We chatted on the drive there, but Amelia could tell that I was nervous.

"It's going to be fine," she reminded me.

"It's just… what if…" I couldn't even begin to explain what I was worried about, but Amelia seemed to intuitively understand what I was thinking.

"There's nothing to lose, Sook. Worst-case scenario, you say an awkward hello, we have a few drinks, go home, and you don't have to ever see him again. Okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, although I wasn't entirely sure that that was the absolute worst-case scenario.

The drive went by too fast, and suddenly we were in Shreveport and I was pulling up into the parking lot.

"Here we are," I said, pulling into the closest spot to the door that I could find. It was still fairly early, so the bar wouldn't be too packed.

"Let's go!" Amelia said excitedly, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the entrance. We walked in, and she seemed pretty pleased by the atmosphere. There were less people than when I had come, but I did spot Eddie sitting at his usual spot. That made me smile. But Eric wasn't behind the bar tonight. Oh, no. He was standing at the bar, looking delicious in a black suit and black dress shirt, no tie. He was chatting up some leggy brunette, who was obviously flirting with him. I sucked in a breath, the butterflies in my stomach make me feel almost nauseous. Suddenly I felt that coming here to see Eric again was a stupid idea. Maybe I should have just left things as they were, a cute story about one silly night…

"So, is he here?" Amelia asked, her eyes darting around the bar.

"Yeah," I said as quietly as I could, and tried to gesture towards him without being to obvious.

"The tall, blonde Viking?" She asked, and I nodded. Her jaw dropped. "Holy shit, Sookie!" She exclaimed. "I know you said he was gorgeous, but that man is sex on a freaking stick!" She started to move towards him and his friend.

"Oh hell no, Amelia!" I grabbed her arm to stop her. "We are not just going right up to him! Can we please just sit at a table? And if he notices us, he notices us? Or I'll go to the bar later?" I pleaded. I really didn't want to make a fool of myself if I could help it.

"Fine," she narrowed her eyes at me, "but you're going to talk to him before the night's over." That almost sounded like a threat. I agreed, and we found ourselves a little table. I still refused to go up to the bar, but a waitress ended up coming to our table to take our drink orders. Amelia got a beer, and I got my gin and tonic. She came back with the drinks pretty quickly, and I sipped on mine slowly. I tried not to look in Eric's direction, but it was hard, knowing he was flirting with some beautiful woman. I tried not to frown as she rubbed her hand up and down his forearm.

"Sook," Amelia said my eyes snapped back to hers, "I wouldn't worry about it."

"What?" I pretended I had no clue what she was talking about. Worried? Me?

"That girl? I wouldn't worry about it. I mean he owns a bar. He's bound to have to, um, entertain the customers. I bet he has women throwing themselves at him all the time."

I didn't respond. That didn't really make me feel better. What could I say, really? I didn't exactly know Eric. I knew that he had been sweet with me, but I couldn't really say what his normal behavior was.

"Well look who it is," a woman appeared at our table. "Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty." She smiled at me, with almost a predatory look in her eyes, and then her eyes flicked to Amelia. She was totally checking her out! I recognized her as the beautiful blonde who I thought had been Eric's boss – Pam, his business partner.

"Hello," I smiled politely, "it's Pam, right?"

"Aren't you just the sweetest little thing," she was still smirking at me. I flushed, feeling a bit awkward.

"Um, this is my friend Amelia," I gestured towards Ames.

"Nice to meet you," Pam practically purred, extending her hand to Amelia.

"Nice to meet you," Amelia returned, just as flirtatiously. Oh, jeez!

"So, Sleeping Beauty, what brings you to Fantasia tonight?" Pam asked. God, it sounded like I was in some warped Disney movie.

"Oh, you know. I just wanted to show Amelia the place, since it's so… cool." I didn't sound very convincing.

"Mhmm," Pam raised an eyebrow, obviously not buying my story. I was blushing again.

"Would you like to join us, Pam?" Amelia asked, smirking at me.

"I can spare a few minutes," Pam was smirking too. I felt like there was some kind of plot against me. This was confirmed when Amelia announced she had to go to "the little girl's room" and left me alone with Pam. I felt her staring at me, but then her eyes travelled to where I had been trying not to stare. Eric and her.

"It' Sookie, right?" She asked, suddenly serious. I nodded. "Look, don't give up on him."

"What?" What was she talking about?

"Eric is my best friend in the world and I love him dearly," she said, "but he can be fucking stupid. He doesn't let people in easily. But he let you in." She looked at me seriously, as if I should understand exactly what she meant. "He'll be really pissed that I'm interfering right now," she continued, "but as I said, he is my best friend. I will do what I have to do to ensure his happiness. Even if I have to be a meddling bitch."

"So," I concluded, "He, um, likes me?"

"Oh, sweetheart," Pam chuckled, "in a word, yes."

My stomach did a strange flip-flop thing. Eric liked me! Not only that, be he had actually told Pam that – maybe not directly, but he said something to make her think that! But it sounded like Eric wasn't quite the dating type.

"Are you saying… are you saying that I should, um, make a move?" I asked timidly. "Because I'm not really-"

"Yes," she cut me off, "if he's too chicken shit, then yes, you might have to." The idea of Eric being a chicken seemed crazy. He seemed to be quite the expert at flirting. I however, was an amateur.

"But… don't all the women here, you know, make a move on him?" That's certainly how it looked with that girl.

"Yes. But you're not a desperate skank," Pam shrugged. "I'm not saying stick your hands down his pants," I blushed at the thought, "but, you know. You might just need to make the first move."

"Oh sweet Jesus," I muttered. What was I getting myself into?

"Don't worry," Pam smiled mischievously and patted my arm, "It'll be worth it."

I sure as hell hoped so.

EPOV

I was suffering through the advances of one Dawn Green when I saw her. She walked in, managing to look both adorable and utterly sexy at the same time. I would have given anything to have her come and interrupt Dawn, but I figured that Sookie was too shy to do that. So instead, I plastered on what Pam called my panty-melting smile and let Dawn continue to grope me. I wanted to tell her to keep her fucking hands off me, but her and her huge group of friends were very regular, loyal, and profitable customers.

I tried to pay attention as Dawn told me about some kind of 'get together' she was having at her place, and gave her a few deep, sexy chuckles, but I was actually distracted by Sookie. What was she doing here? She had come in with another woman, maybe her friend Amelia that she had told me about?

I glanced over at the table where Sookie and her friend had sat down, and realized that Pam was there. Sookie was alone with Pam. Oh, fuck.

"Eric?" Dawn tried to get my attention.

"Sorry, Dawn," I smoldered at her, "I have some business to attend to. Will you excuse me?" I didn't give her a chance to answer before I walked away.

There was no chance in hell I was letting Pam interrogate Sookie, or humiliate her, which seemed more likely. I couldn't understand what the fuck Pam's interest was in her, anyways. She had never been interested in any of my… women, before. Nothing had even happened with Sookie anyways. But Pam seemed to be obsessed with her.

I approached the table with a smile, hoping to diffuse any tension that Pam was producing. Sookie looked up at me, and a little blush colored her cheeks, and she smiled back.

"Sookie," I greeted, "Nice to see you again."

"Hi, Eric," she said, in her sweet little southern voice.

"Pam," I greeted her too, narrowing my eyes at her.

"Well hello, Eric," she grinned at me. "How nice of you to join us. I was just introducing myself to Sookie here, and making sure she was having a nice time at our lovely establishment."

"Uh-huh," I doubted that. Stupid Pam.

Sookie's friend returned to the table with a beer in her hand, and looked me up and down.

"So you're Eric, huh?" She asked. I glanced at Sookie to see her cheeks flush, and chuckled to myself. Was she embarrassed because she had told her friend about me? I could only assume that was the case.

"I am," I laughed.

"Nice to meet you," she smirked. "And nice bar."

"Thanks. It's Amelia, right?"

"Yep." She took a sip of her beer. Her and Pam were going to get along well.

I sat with them, and the four of us made small talk, mostly talking about the bar and Sookie and Amelia's experiences at their little bar, since they've both worked there.

"Well," Pam said, getting up, "I'm going to go man the bar for a while. Care to join me, Amelia?" Pam smiled at Amelia flirtatiously. She was up to something.

"Sure," Amelia agreed, shooting a look at Sookie. They were both up to something. The two of them walked away, leaving me and Sookie alone.

"Could they be anymore obvious?" Sookie gave a little laugh.

"I know," I chuckled, "they've known each other for a few hours and they're already scheming together." We stared at each other for a moment. "Do you want another drink?" I offered.

"Oh, no thanks," she smiled, "I'm driving home tonight. I was told that I shouldn't make a habit of passing out at bars," she joked.

"I'm glad to hear that," I laughed with her. Our eyes met and I felt something in me stir.

Sookie looked down for a second and bit her lip, and I couldn't read the expression on her face. It passed quickly. Suddenly she was standing, her hand extended to me.

"Dance with me?" She smiled shyly. How could I say no to her? The techno-club music, that I didn't particularly enjoy, had faded into a slower song that I didn't recognize. We walked to the little dance floor hand in hand, and I pulled her to me, as close as was appropriate – being someone who barely knew her, but had already made her breakfast. It was kind of a gray area.

"You're taller," I remarked, noticing that her arms were almost able to reach around my neck.

"It's the shoes," she blushed. Hmm, I liked them.

I enjoyed the feeling of her little body close to mine, the two of us swaying softly to the music. I didn't think I'd ever danced with someone here before, but Sookie seemed to be the exception to most of my rules anyways.

"So, Miss Stackhouse, how is your second experience at Fantasia comparing to your first?" I asked jokingly.

"Well," she smiled, "I'm not feeling quite as carefree, but all in all I think it's been just as fun," she moved a bit closer to me. "Or maybe even better."

I smiled down at her. "Are you sure? You did meet Pam." She laughed.

"At least she's made, um, friends with Amelia," Sookie smiled up at me.

"Actually, that worries me a bit."

"Me too," she agreed.

We remained silent for the rest of our dance. I rubbed little circles into her lower back with my thumbs. She looked up at me with her wide, innocent eyes. There was something between us, and whatever it was, I didn't want to ignore it. Maybe I wasn't good at relationship stuff, but having Sookie in my arms was too good to resist. If she could be patient with me, I would try. For her, I would try. I pulled her a little closer to me, as if to make that point silently.

The dance finished, and we walked back to her little table. Sookie excused herself to go to the bathroom. Once she'd gone, I heard a voice clear behind me. Amelia.

"Is everything-"

"Listen, pretty boy," Amelia cut me off. Pretty? "As Sookie's best friend it is my job to do the whole 'what are your intentions with my girl' thing." I remained silent, trying to collect my thoughts. "So?" She pressed.

"Um, Amelia, we just met." I pointed out the obvious. What the hell else was I supposed to say?

"I don't really give a fuck," Amelia shrugged. "If you're just looking to fuck her, you can stay the hell away from her. She put up with enough shit from that asshole Bill." That, of course, I knew.

"I know," I said simply.

"Good. Sookie is a good person, the best, sweetest person I know. I won't stand by and let some douchebag take advantage of that. Not again." I tried not to smile, because she sounded so much like Pam.

"I… It's not about sex," is the best I could come up with. Jesus fucking Christ, Pam harping on me was one thing, but Amelia was practically a stranger!

"Glad to hear it," she smirked. "You'd better act like a gentleman. My dad knows a lot of powerful people. Plus, in case you haven't noticed, I now have Pam on my side." She looked over where Pam was standing, and I glanced over too. Sure enough, Pam was watching us with an evil grin. Bitch.

"That's frightening," I muttered. Amelia laughed.

Sookie returned to the table while the air was still a bit tense between me and Amelia. Amelia was small, and not as scary as Pam, but for some reason I felt like her threats weren't empty.

"Everything okay here?" Sookie asked, looking back and forth between me and Amelia.

"Sure is," Amelia smiled at her. Sookie gave her a weird look, like she suspected that Amelia had done something wrong. Amelia winked at her.

We all chatted for a bit, Pam even joined us again. It was nearly 1 a.m. when Sookie and Amelia decided to go. She had a bit of a drive, apparently.

"Are you finished your beer?" Sookie asked.

"Mhmm," Amelia slammed the empty bottle on the table. "You go start the car. I'll be right behind you." She gave me a pointed look. I rolled my eyes.

"I'll walk you to your car," I told Sookie, offering my hand. She took it shyly.

"She could at least try to be subtle," Sookie muttered once we were out of earshot.

"Well," I laughed, "If she's anything like Pam, 'subtle' isn't really in her vocabulary."

"I guess," Sookie laughed with me. I gave her hand a little squeeze of reassurance. Pam may not be subtle, but she wasn't coercing me into anything. Sookie gave me a sweet smile and squeezed back.

"So," I said once we had reached her car, "You're awake. And sober," I teased.

"Oh hush," she blushed.

Before I could overthink what I was about to do, I brushed her cheek with my fingers. "I love making you blush," I told her in a husky voice. She leaned into my hands and looked at me with sparkling eyes. I leaned down slowly, careful not to spook her, and brushed a gentle kiss into her lips. They were so soft and plump, perfect really. But Sookie wanted more, apparently, because she grabbed my face and deepened the kiss. I parted her lips with my tongue as I pressed my body against hers, backing her into the side of her car. Kissing Sookie was definitely my new favorite thing. She was fucking delicious. I don't know how long we stood there kissing, but I finally pulled back so that we could breathe. I placed a soft kiss on her neck, and she shivered.

"Pam said I couldn't let you leave without getting your number and asking you out on a date," I breathed into her ear, still pressing her against the side of her car.

"Are you gonna listen to her?" She whispered, grasping my sides with her tiny hands, holding me against her.

"I think it would be wise," I said, then placed a kiss behind her ear. "Don't you?"

"Yes," she gasped. "Give me your phone." I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her. She entered her name and number into my contacts. "There you go," she smiled at me.

"Thank you," I brushed my lips along her jawline. "Now, will you go out on a date with me?" I whispered.

"Yes," she whispered back.

"Good," I said, then returned to my new favorite thing.

We kissed until we heard a voice behind us. "Soooookie," it sang.

We turned around, and it was Amelia. She was smiling widely at us. Sookie flushed and buried her face into my chest, embarrassed. I chuckled.

"Goodnight, Miss Stackhouse," I whispered into her ear.

"Goodnight, Mr. Northman," she finally looked up at me, smiling.

"I'll call you about that date," I smiled back at her. She nodded shyly. I placed one last kiss on her lips, then let her get into her car. She waved as she pulled out, and I waved back.

I walked back towards the bar, trying to get the perma-grin off my face before Pam saw it. God knows she would make me talk about it. It stayed, though, because I couldn't stop thinking about how much I loved Sookie's lips.


	5. Steal Your Heart

SPOV

I drove home that night with an idiot smile on my face, feeling like I was drunk. Lord, maybe I was drunk, on Eric’s kisses. He was heck of a good kisser! I was even too intoxicated to be embarrassed or annoyed by Amelia’s merciless teasing.

“Sookie and Eric, sitting in a tree,” she sang, “K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”

I laughed at her, wondering what Pam had been giving her at the bar. Ames was drunk!

Eventually, I got us home and got Amelia into bed. I made sure she drank a huge glass of water first, and left another by her bed – along with a bottle of Tylenol. I laughed to myself, glad that after this trip to Fantasia it wasn’t me who would be needing it. I much preferred being the caregiver, rather than the patient. Although, I certainly would repeat my drunk night with Eric in a heartbeat.

I brushed my teeth and scrubbed the little bit of makeup off my face, and then changed into one of my comfy nightgowns. I took my phone out of my purse so that I could plug it into its charger, and noticed that I had a text message from an unknown number. My heart fluttered.

Sweet dreams, Sookie. –E

The idiot smile returned, and I was glad Ames wasn’t there to see it. I wondered if I should reply? I assumed Eric was awake still; it wasn’t that late. I saved his number into my phone, and then shot him a quick reply.

You too. –S

 

I crawled into bed and couldn’t help but replay scenes from tonight in my head. Sweet Jesus, the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen kissed me tonight! And said he wanted to take me out on a date! His goodnight text had given me a surge of hope that he would actually call me.

I hugged a pillow to my chest, and squeezed my eyes shut, wondering how on earth I’d ever fall asleep.

***

It was on Sunday evening that Eric called me. I was sitting in the living room, reading a romance novel. I wondered laughingly if he had called tonight because he had gone in to meet with Pam and the accountant, and Pam had given him a hard time. I forced myself to not pick up on the first ring, even though I had kept my phone close to me since Thursday night. Seeing his name on the caller ID made my heart skip a beat. After the second ring I decided it was okay to answer.

“Hello?” I answered, as if I hadn’t just been staring at my phone desperately.

“Hi Sookie, it’s Eric.”

“Oh, hi Eric,” stay cool, Sookie! “How are you?”

“I’m good, you? You staying out of trouble?” he teased.

“I’ve been good,” I smirked into the phone. “How have things been at Fantasia?”

“Slightly less interesting without you there,” he chuckled. I felt myself blush, and was glad he couldn’t see it so he couldn’t tease me about that too.

“That’s too bad,” I said, trying to recover.

“So,” he began, “are you free to, uh, have dinner with me sometime this week?”

“I’d love to,” I smiled widely into the phone. “What night were you thinking?”

“Well, is Wednesday night too short notice? Because it’s my-”

“Wednesday sounds good,” I cut him off. It kind of made me happy that he seemed to be a bit nervous, too. It wasn’t just me! Of course I would love to see him sooner rather than later. I had kept my schedule pretty clear this week on purpose, not that it would have been packed otherwise. The only thing I had was babysitting/tutoring my friend Arlene’s kids, but she was really flexible about that.

“Good,” he paused, “I’ll pick you up at six?”

“That sounds good.” I gave him my address and directions, even though Bon Temps wasn’t that hard to find.

“Alright, I’ll see you then, Sookie,” he said in his deep, smooth voice.

“I look forward to it,” I smiled. I had almost blurted out ‘I can’t wait,’ but dialed it back a bit. I didn’t want to scare the poor guy!

“Me too. Goodbye, Sookie.”

“Bye, Eric,” I tried to return his sexy tone.

Not two minutes after I hung up, Amelia crept into the living room and plopped herself down on the couch beside me.

“So?” She asked. “Was that loverboy?”

“Yes,” I smiled, “that was him. We’re going out to dinner on Wednesday.”

“Aw,” she teased me, “that’s adorable.” She even pinched my cheeks.

“Oh hush,” I swatted her hand away. “I’m allowed to be excited.”

“Yes,” she grinned, “yes, you are.”

***

Monday passed by so slowly I could barely stand it. I did boring, mundane things; I cleaned the house, did laundry, and even did a little baking. I already knew what I wanted to wear on my date, so I didn’t have to do any shopping. Instead, I tried on my dress to make sure it still looked nice. It did! It was my yellow summer dress – fancier than the others, but not too fancy. With the right jewelry and pretty makeup it would be perfect. Amelia had already promised me that she would be home to help me with my hair and makeup, but would hide when Eric got there so she didn’t embarrass him (or me!) any more than she and Pam already had. She was going out later that night too, so the house would be empty… No, I wasn’t even going to go there!

Tuesday went by a little bitter quicker, since I watched Coby and Lisa – Arlene’s kids – while she was working the lunch/early dinner shift. I usually did a little bit of schoolwork with them – math and reading, mostly – because Arlene told me she was afraid that they would inherit their father’s genes and be “dumb like their daddy”. I had never met Arlene’s babydaddy before, since he had run off quite a while back, but I couldn’t begrudge Arlene for wanting her kids to do well in school, of course.

Wednesday finally arrived, and I woke up pretty early. I made myself a cup of coffee and some toast, and continued reading my romance novel for a bit. I decided I would have a bath, instead of a shower, so that I could relax a bit and my skin would smell all vanilla-y, like the bubbles.

I tried not to think too much about the coming night. Well I thought about it, but I didn’t want to freak myself out. I was nervous – I really had no experience with dating. Bill was the only person I’d ever dated, and look how that turned out! But I refused to let stupid Bill taint tonight. Me and Eric clicked, I knew that much. Even if we weren’t fans of the dating scene, that was all that really mattered to me for now. I liked how I felt when I was near him. I wanted him.

I had washed my hair first, then soaked in the tub, so once I was all prune-y from the water I drained it and got out. I would have put a robe on, but it was too warm for that, so I put on a little pair of shorts and a stretchy tube top that I wouldn’t need to lift over my styled hair.

Amelia came out of her room just past noon, since she went out last night. She was in pretty good shape, considering.

“Good morning, Sookie. Happy Sexy-Bartender-Date-Night.” She smiled at me.

“Morning, Amelia.” I just returned her smile, since I was too excited to even be bothered by her teasing. She gave a little chuckle at my excitement.

I blow-dried my hair, which took awhile since it had gotten so long. Then, I made me and Ames some lunch. It always took her stomach awhile to wake up when she was hung-over. We ate and chatted quietly, then cleaned up the kitchen together.

“You ready to get gorgeous, darling?” Amelia asked in an exaggerated voice. I giggled and followed her into her room, where she assembled all her beauty products. She sat me down in front of the mirror.

“What do you want to do with your hair?” she asked, running her fingers through it.

“I was thinking a half up half down kind of thing?” I suggested.

“Perfect,” she agreed.

She used her curling iron to make soft waves in my hair. It took a while since I had so much hair, but it would be worth it, I was sure. She gathered the hair at my crown and fastened it with a sparkly clip. She let a couple of strands fall to frame my face.

“You like?” she asked when she was done.

“It’s perfect, Ames!” I smiled. It really was. It was pretty and elegant, but not too stiff or formal.

“Good. Now close your eyes,” she said, before spraying my hair with hairspray. “Ready for makeup?” she asked.

“Yep,” I said. I was confident that Ames knew me well enough to know what I did and didn’t like.

When she was done, I smiled at her handiwork. She had lined my eyes a little heavier than I was used to, but it looked beautiful and wasn’t too much. She put a bit of peach blush on my cheeks, and then gave me a peach gloss to put on before Eric got here. I gave her a huge hug, and she scolded me, telling me to watch my hair.

I wasn’t going to put my dress on until about 5:30, so I tried to read my romance for a bit. I wasn’t really concentrating very well, though. Finally, I just made sure I had everything ready in my little evening purse, put on my favorite earrings and a sparkly silver bracelet, and waited.

At 5:30, I put my dress and shoes on and came out of my room to get Amelia’s approval. I walked into the living room, where she was, and asked, “So?”

“Sookie!” she nearly squealed. “Sook, you look gorgeous!”

“Yeah?” I asked, biting my lip.

“Yes!”

“Okay,” I breathed. I sat beside her carefully, and put on my gloss as I tried to watch whatever television show Ames was watching. Really, I was just thinking that Eric would be at my door soon. So soon!

Finally, the doorbell rang and I tried not to have a heart attack. Amelia waggled her eyebrows at me, and then ran up to her room to hide, like we had agreed.

I plastered a nervous smile on my face, and opened the door. I tried not to drool. Eric was standing there, wearing dark wash jeans and a baby blue v-neck sweater, under a jacket. And he was holding flowers.

“Wow,” he smiled at me. “Sookie, you look beautiful.”

“Thanks,” I felt myself flush inevitably under his gaze. “You look… great.” Was that weird for me to say?

He chuckled and held the flowers out to me. “These are for you,” he said, but his expression was funny.

“They’re beautiful,” I smiled, taking them from him. “Thank you,” I kissed his cheek.

“I’m glad you like them,” he looked almost relieved.

“You thought I wouldn’t?”

“Well, um, Pam told me to bring you flowers. I was worried you’d think it was… cheesy.” He looked like he was about to blush.

“Well, I love cheesy.” I laughed.

“Good to know,” he winked. Guh!

“Come on in, I’ll just put these in water,” I smiled. He waited patiently in the living room while I ran to the kitchen to grab a vase.

“Ready to go?” He asked, when I returned.

“Lead the way, Mr. Northman,” I nodded. I made sure I had a light cardigan to wear in case I was cool in what I assumed was going to be an air conditioned restaurant.

He led me to his corvette, and opened the door for me. Once in the car, we chatted about our week. I told him about babysitting and tutoring, I gave him Arlene’s soap-opera backstory, and he told me about his week at the bar. Friday and Saturday nights were crazy busy, he told me, and he was starting to get tired of dealing with it. I felt bad for him. As such a homebody, I couldn’t even imagine working at a bar every night. I may have worked at Merlottes, but it wasn’t much like Fantasia.

He ended up taking me to a beautiful little Italian bistro in Shreveport, called Giuseppe’s. We were seated immediately, since Eric had made a reservation. The table was pretty secluded, and the setting felt very intimate and romantic. I felt butterflies in my tummy.

Eric asked me if I wanted some wine, and I did, so he ordered us some. We browsed our menu for quite some time, since everything looked so good. We ended up sharing a cheese plate as an entrée, I ordered the lasagna, and he ordered the veal parmigiana. Once we handed our menus back to the waiter, I figured it was time to start the whole ‘get to know you’ conversation part of our technical first date.

“So how long have you lived in the States?” I asked, since it seemed like a pretty broad, non-threatening question.

“Well, I moved to New York to go to business school after high school, upon my father’s request. So it’s been… almost twelve years I guess?” He looked like he was counting.

“Wow, New York!” I smiled, “What made you move to Louisiana after living in New York?”

“Pam, actually,” he chuckled. “I met her when we were doing our masters degrees. She had planned on going into some kind of fashion merchandizing or marketing or something, but ended up hating the so-called ‘bitches’ she met in the industry.” His smile faltered a little bit. “I was um, going through a bit of a… hard time,” he looked serious, “so I kind of wanted to get the hell out of New York too. Pam was from here, so we decided to move to Shreveport and go into business for ourselves.” He tried to smile fondly, thinking of Pam, but it seemed like maybe I had brought up an awkward subject.

“Oh,” I said quietly. The air was tense. Stupid, Sookie! Way to ruin the mood. “I’m sorry, Eric,” I apologized, “I didn’t mean to pry or anything.”

“Shit, no, Sookie,” he sighed, “I want you to know things about me. You know, about my life and my past. I want to tell you about me, it’s just that I’m not used to talking about it with anyone. But I want to… with you.”

“Okay,” I gave him a soft smile.

“I moved here from Sweden with my childhood friend slash high school sweetheart, I guess you could say. We went to school, did our Undergrads and managed to stick together. Had fun, partied, did okay in school, and all that, you know?” I nodded. “I got busier thought, when I did my Master’s and started working for a friend of my Dad’s. She… I guess she got in with the wrong crowd? She got into some serious trouble and… tried to drag me down with her, and… Let’s just say everything went to shit and she…” he seemed lost for words.

“She hurt you?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah,” he agreed. I wanted to wrap him in a hug. I didn’t mean to dig all of this up on our first date, but he did seem to want to tell me about it.

“I’m sorry, Eric,” I said sincerely. I couldn’t imagine having someone you’d loved for so long betray you. What had happened between Bill and me could barely compare.

“I guess I just want you to know that, like you, I’ve been hurt… and it’s been a while. So it might take me a bit to get a hang of this whole ‘dating thing’. And I just… want you to know I’m trying.” He sounded determined.

I took his hand and gave it a squeeze to let him know that I got what he was saying.

“Sorry to get all heavy on you,” he chuckled.

“Well, considering I unloaded all my crap about Bill within minutes of meeting you,” I teased, “I don’t mind.” He laughed.

We snacked on our cheese plate while we waited for our main course. It was delicious.

“So what about you?” He asked. “Have you lived in that house your whole life?”

“No, actually it was my Gran’s house,” I smiled. “I lived with my parents and my brother in our childhood home until I was seven, when my parents died. Me and Jason moved into Gran’s house with her, and she raised us. When Jase turned 18 he moved into our old house, and I stayed with Gran. She passed away a few months after my college graduation. She left Jason my parents’ house, and she left me her farmhouse. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”

“I’m sorry,” he said gently. “Your Gran must have been one hell of a woman,” he smiled softly at me. I was glad he focused on the happy parts, my Gran, rather than the death.

“She was,” I agreed. “She was sassy and smart, and could put me and Jason in our place like no one else. She knew more about American history than any professor I met in college,” I laughed, and Eric laughed with me.

Our meals came, and they both looked delicious.

“It’s nice that you have that house, full of memories of her,” Eric said as he cut into his food.

“It is,” I agreed, “I feel lucky. Do you ever go back to Sweden?” I asked tentatively, not explicitly mentioning his childhood or his parents. I cut into my lasagna.

“Not often enough,” he sighed. “I haven’t been back since my mother passed two years ago. I technically own our family home, but I don’t know… I feel weird going back, you know? I haven’t lived there in so long.” I nodded, kind of understanding what he meant. It was sort of how I felt about my parents’ house.

“Do you still have family there?”

“I have aunts and uncles and cousins,” he said, “and I have business associates of my father’s I could visit, since technically I inherited a whole bunch of investments and stocks in my father’s business.”

“Your father’s business?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Yeah… he was quite the businessman. But I didn’t really have much interest in working for him. He didn’t like that very much,” Eric laughed dryly. “But when he got sick, his perspective changed a bit. He wanted me to be happy, you know?” I nodded.

“It’s good that business didn’t get in the way of that,” I smiled.

Our conversation turned to lighter topics, as we both commented on how delicious our food was. He asked about Jason, and I told him what a horn-dog he was. A well-meaning, often tender-hearted horn-dog, though. He told me a bit about Sweden, what it was like growing up there, and we chatted about how different it was from growing up in America, especially Louisiana.

Our waiter came to our table and cleared our plates, and asked if we were interested in dessert. We both declined, since we were so stuffed, and Eric asked for the bill.

I had been thinking about something all night, and finally forced myself to ask.

“I was thinking,” I said shyly, “maybe we could have coffee and dessert at my place. I did some baking this week. Do you like pecan pie?”

EPOV

I was trying to figure out how Sookie managed to be so sweet but so utterly sexy at the same time. Pie, she asked?

“I would love some pie, Sookie,” I replied, using my panty-melting voice. I tried not to laugh out loud when her cheeks flushed. Her blush was probably one of my favorite things. Add that to the list, that started with kissing her.

“You hush,” she nearly pouted, knowing that I had successfully gotten the reaction I wanted.

I paid the bill, and Sookie thanked me sincerely for the “amazing dinner”. My little southern belle, I smiled to myself, she was so polite. I took her hand, and led her back to my car. Once we were in the car, Sookie took out her phone and started typing into it.

“I’m messaging Amelia,” she explained, “to, uh, make sure she’s out of the house.”

“You don’t have to kick her out of the house,” I said to be polite, but didn’t really mean it. I really did want alone time with Sookie.

“We don’t need her nosy self creeping around,” Sookie laughed. “She means well, but doesn’t always know when to leave things be.”

“Sounds familiar,” I chuckled.

“She’s out with her friend Tray,” Sookie smiled shyly at me, and I was happy that she was pleased we would have the house to ourselves.

She told me a little about how her and Amelia met in New Orleans, and how they became friends. I was glad that Sookie had someone like Amelia, because it seemed like she got her to come out of her shell. I was relieved to be talking about Sookie, instead of about me, for a bit. I was worried that I had fucked things up when I had brought up the shit from my past. Things with Nora had messed me up for a long time, and maybe still affected me now, in a way. I just needed Sookie to know that I was able to, willing even, to put myself out there. For her. I hadn’t gone into great detail about what happened with Nora, because it was a really fucking crappy subject to talk about in public, and I hadn’t really told anyone about it, except for Pam all those years ago. Sookie understanding that I had been hurt was plenty for me for now; it was already more than I’d shared with anyone in a long, long time.

I pulled up into the little gravel driveway, and Sookie told me to park around back. Sure enough, her little yellow car was there. I followed her into her house, and into the kitchen. I sat at her kitchen table and watched as she prepared our coffee and dessert.

“This house is really great,” I commented, looking around. “It’s so cozy and, well, homey. It feels like it has a history.”

“It does,” she smiled, “it’s been home to many generations of Stackhouses.”

There had obviously been updates, based on the shiny new appliances I could see, but Sookie had very much retained the old décor, which I imagined was her Gran’s. I appreciated that about her.

When the coffee was ready and she had cut us slices of pie, she directed us into the living room and onto the couch. She looked at me expectantly, I guess waiting for me to try her pie. When I took my first bite, I practically moaned.

“Shit, Sookie,” I groaned, “that’s amazing.”

“Thank you,” she said happily. “It was my Gran’s recipe.”

I finished my piece of pie pretty quickly, and considered having another when Sookie offered, but I was pretty full so I politely declined. Sookie took her time with hers, but she was obviously enjoying it. I watched her eat as I sipped my coffee. She was so fucking adorable.

When we were both done she took our cups and plates back into the kitchen. When she came back into the living room, she sat a little bit closer to me. She was watching me, not in a creepy way, and I wanted to know what she was seeing.

“Sookie?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah?” She breathed.

“What are you looking at?”

She bit her lip and looked away for a moment. I really, really wanted to kiss her, but I wanted to see if she’d be the one to go for it this time.

“Your eyes, um, they look really blue in that shirt,” she said, looking up at me. I looked down, into her eyes, and saw lust. Jesus fuck.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And,” she moved even closer, “I wanted to see if I had the courage to kiss you.” He stare lowered to my lips.

“And?”

“I think I’m good,” she whispered, then placed her lips on mine.

The kiss started out sweet and gentle, but I quickly deepened it. I tangled my hand into her hair and brought her face as close to mine as possible. I didn’t think I’d ever wanted anyone so fucking much. Her mouth, her lips, her tongue; they were all driving me insane.

Somehow we ended up horizontal on the couch, her soft body underneath mine.

“Amelia’s going to kill me,” I said, kissing her neck.

“Why?” Sookie asked, cupping my cheeks and bringing my mouth back to hers.

“I promised her I’d be a gentleman,” I said against her lips.

“Well I don’t want you to be a gentleman,” she replied, wrapping her legs around me and pressing up against me.

“Oh, fuck,” I groaned.

Feeling her body against me like that, it was too much. Her hips started moving against mine, and I had no choice but to respond in kind. I felt her little hands move underneath my shirt, and suddenly I needed to feel her skin, too. I slid my hand slowly up her leg, until I reached the hem of her skirt. I paused, incase she was going to stop me, and continued when she didn’t. Fuck, her skin was soft. Her breathing got heavier as I let my hand caress her skin, inching towards her panties. She gasped when I finally palmed her ass, and pulled her closer to rub my erection against her center. Holy fuck, she felt amazing.

Just as I was debating letting my fingers dip into those panties, the phone rang, snapping us out of our trance. I pulled back a bit, but she was able to reach the cordless phone on the table beside us without me getting off of her.

“Hello,” she answered with a sigh. “Hi, Arlene. Yeah. No, it’s okay. No, it’s fine, I don’t have anything. Alrighty. Okay. Okay, I’ll see you guys tomorrow, then. ‘Kay, goodnight.” She hung up the phone and looked up at me. “That was Arlene, asking me to babysit tomorrow night,” she reported. I pulled back a bit more.

“I should get going,” I said, kissing her nose. It was obviously easy for me to get lost in her, but I wanted to make sure to do things right. That meant maybe taking things a bit slower than I usually did with… women.

She pouted at me, but didn’t disagree. I think we were maybe both a bit scared of fucking things up by moving too quickly physically. I kissed her pouty little lips. Adorable.

She unwrapped her legs from around me, and we both sat up. I put my shoes on, and we walked hand in hand to the door.

“I had a good time tonight,” I smiled at her, giving her another kiss.

“Me too,” she whispered, pulling me closer. I felt us both get lost in the kiss.

“Sookie,” I whispered, pulling away from her, “I want to do this right.” She looked up at me and nodded.

“Have a good night, Eric,” she kissed me on the cheek, “and have a safe drive back to Shreveport.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said, “or when I know when my next night off will be.”

“Okay,” she smiled at me. “I’ll be babysitting Coby and Lisa, but I’ll be here.”

“Good luck,” I chuckled. But I knew Sookie was probably a pretty kick-ass babysitter. I gave her one last soft kiss on the lips, and then made myself walk to my car, before I said ‘fuck it’ and ravaged her on the sofa.

As I drove back towards Shreveport, thinking about how well tonight had gone, I doubted that I would ever mind doing this drive.


	6. Burn the Night Away

EPOV

When I got back to my place it was still too early for me to go to bed. I called Pam to make sure everything went okay at the bar, and offered to come in for a few hours if need be. I could practically hear her eyes roll at me through the phone.

“I think I know how to manage the bar without you, Eric,” she said.

“I know. I was just checking in.”

“Right,” she scoffed, “I’m sure. I think it’s more likely that you wanted to gush about your date like a goddamn high school cheerleader.”

“You caught me,” I said dryly.

I wouldn’t tell her anything, except that I had a good time. She wasn’t pleased with my evasiveness, but that was just too fucking bad for her.

“As long as you didn’t act like a chicken shit,” she sighed.

“What?” I asked. What the fuck was she talking about?

“Oh, nothing. You’re seeing her again, yes?”

“Yeah…”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about, Northman. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Pam.” I hung up a bit confused. I did not like the fact that Pam thought of me as a ‘chicken shit’. I hoped she hadn’t said anything like that to Sookie that night that she had cornered her at Fantasia… Whatever. Things were going well with Sookie.

I did a little bit of paperwork and responded to some e-mails, and then watched a little bit of television.

I finally decided to get to bed around 1 am, figuring I’d need to be well rested for tomorrow night. Ladies Night. Pam and I had run a ladies night on Thursdays since we opened the bar, because it was good for business and publicity. Ladies only had to pay a cover charge, and could drink for free until midnight. While it had created a good buzz for Fantasia, and was actually pretty profitable in the long run, they were exhausting. Because there were more people than usual, and many of those were drunker than usual, it was always loud, crowded, and much more rowdy than normal. All those years ago, Pam and I were in heaven, with a bar full of hot drunk chicks. Now, though, it was beginning to lose its appeal. Especially now that I found Sookie.

I smiled, thinking of her. She was so sweet, but she was also… genuine. That wasn’t a combination that I was particularly used to. She had been so sweet and shy on our date, but I could tell there was something inside her that wanted to be bold – that was why she kissed me. I imagined that being hurt by that fucktard Bill had shaken her confidence in a way, but I wanted her fire. I wanted it all.

It took me until after 3 am to fall asleep, my mind preoccupied with thoughts about what I’d need to do for the bar tomorrow, but mostly about my little southern belle.

xxx

Thursday night was loud. And Rowdy. And I really, really hated it. So I hid in my office, doing some paperwork, surfed the net, and did other very important things. Jesus fuck, when had I become a ninety year old woman?

I had wanted to call Sookie all evening, but I knew she would be babysitting. She was a good friend, babysitting for Arlene at the drop of the hat. I wondered if she was paid for it. I hoped people didn’t take advantage of Sookie’s sweetness, the way that fucking Bill had. By the way she talked about Arlene it sounded like she had taken Sookie under he wing at Merlotte’s when she was younger. I also wondered if it had something to do with her grandmother, and not having much family around …

I looked at the clock and it was 10, which meant that surely it was late enough to call Sookie, but not too late that she’d be asleep.

“Hello?” answered a hushed voice.

“Hello, Miss Stackhouse,” I said.

“Hi, Eric,” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“You okay to talk?”

“Oh, yeah, the kids are in bed. I think Arlene finishes at midnight or one tonight.”

“That’s late,” I remarked.

“It is,” she agreed, “but I really don’t mind. I love these kids.” Ah, so maybe it had less to do with Arlene. “How are things at Fantasia?” she asked.

“Loud,” I sighed.

“It is a bar, Eric,” she giggled.

“I know that,” I mumbled. “I’m just tired. This morning Pam thought there was alcohol missing, but the shipment guy said he swore he delivered the requested amount. So I don’t know what’s going on.” I surprised myself a bit, sharing with her.

“Oh, Eric, that sucks,” she said sympathetically.

“It does,” I agreed. “What about you? How was babysitting?”

“Good. We played some board games and did some math, we watched a movie. And I made them Gran’s chicken.”

“Gran’s chicken?”

“Yeah, Gran made really awesome fried chicken. It’s Coby and Lisa’s favorite. Everyone loves it, really.”

“Everyone?” I teased.

“Yes, everyone. You don’t believe me?” She sassed. “I’ll make it for you sometime.”

“I’d like that,” I laughed.

“Do you, um want to come over for dinner Saturday night? I would invite you Sunday, but me and Ames are having a movie night. I know you have to work Saturday night, but if you came early, and went to work after? I…” she was rambling nervously and it was adorable.

“I’ll be there,” I smirked into the phone.

“Really?” she asked, surprised. “Okay… come over for like, five-thirty, six o’clock?”

“Five-thirty, then.” I laughed. We chatted for a few more minutes, until I heard an obnoxious knock on the door.

“I have to go, Sookie. I think I’m about to get attacked by Pam.”

“Okay,” she laughed. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”

“Goodnight, Sookie,” I said.

Almost as soon as I hung up, Pam barged into my office.

“Seriously, Eric? Are you going to stay in here all fucking night?” She scowled at me.

“If I could, yes.”

“No fucking way, Eric. Come on, you have to do your whole PR thing, make the rounds, you know?”

“Fine,” I sighed. I knew she was right. We’d always been very hands-on owners. Pam said that I was an attraction, too.

So, I, as Pam had advised, made the rounds. I walked around, saying hello to the regulars. I stood behind the bar for a while, chatting with the people sitting there. Eventually I made my way to my booth, which was reserved for me and my ‘people’. I scanned the crowd, looking for any problems.

I was sipping on a beer when I heard a breathy, “Hi, Eric.” I looked up and almost cringed. It was Dawn. Sometimes it felt like she came here every goddamned night.

“Hi, Dawn,” I replied. For some reason, she took this as an invitation, and slid into the booth beside me. I tried not to push her back out.

“Do you wanna come over to my table and join us?” She asked, sitting uncomfortably close to me. I tried to move away from here.

“No, thanks,” I kept my voice detached.

“Hmm, then do you want to dance?” It looked like she was trying to push her boobs out. I fought back a snort.

“Sorry, I don’t dance here.” Unless it’s with Sookie, I added mentally.

“Well, then let’s just get out of here,” she batted her lashes. Jesus, Christ could she not take a hint?

“Look Dawn, I’m flattered,” I lied, “but I’m actually seeing someone.” Not a lie!

“What?” she looked dumbfounded. “That’s hard to believe,” she narrowed her eyes at me.

“Believe what you want,” I shrugged, “but I am. You should get back to your group.”

She pouted at me, and left with a little huff. Thank god. I was dying to go back and hide in my office, but I knew that Pam would just drag me back out anyways. I pulled out my phone and looked at the time – it was nearing one o’clock, which meant Sookie was probably going to bed now. I sent her a good night text. She replied almost immediately.

Goodnight Eric xoxo –S

I grinned at the hugs and kisses. Jesus Christ, I was a schmuck.

xxx

Saturday came, and I started getting ready around three o’clock. When I got out of the shower, I saw that I had a voicemail message. I pressed the play button.

Um, Mr… Mr. Northman? It’s Bruce. I, um, I’m sorry to call you… but it’s important, and, um, urgent…There is something wrong with the, um, finances and I… I know we usually meet on Sundays, but I thought perhaps… you… it was urgent so I thought perhaps… we should meet today? If that’s alright? Please, um, please call me back when you receive this. It really is important… And… this is Bruce? Okay, good-bye Mr. Northman.

Fuck me. Bruce was a meek man, but he really sounded like a fucking bumbling idiot in this message, so he was obviously very nervous. What was going on? Did this have something to do with the missing shipment of alcohol?

I felt a sinking feeling when I realized I would have to cancel my dinner with Sookie.

SPOV

Saturday I woke up excited. Eric was coming to my house, again. I got butterflies when I thought about what had happened the last time he was at my house…

At around three, I was already dressed and made up, and I started to prepare to food for our dinner. Gran’s chicken didn’t take long to do, but I wanted to busy myself. The phone rang around three fifteen.

“Hello?” I answered

“Hi, Sookie.” It was Eric, and he sounded funny.

“Hi, Eric. Is everything okay?”

“Not really,” he sighed. I was worried.

“What is it?”

“I have to cancel on you tonight.” My heart sank.

“Oh… okay,” I said quietly.

“I’m really sorry. Bruce called me and said there was something wrong with our books, and he wanted to meet as soon as possible.” Well, that was a pretty good reason.

“Oh no,” I said. “I hope everything is okay.”

“Me too,” he replied, “but I think there’s something going on. I’m really sorry, again. I hope we can, um, reschedule?”

“I think we can,” I laughed.

“I’ll call you later, when everything gets sorted out.”

“Okay. Well, good luck.”

“Thanks. And Sookie?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really sorry I won’t get to taste your chicken tonight.” I felt myself blush. Was he being sincere, or was he being dirty? I assumed he was trying to make me blush.

“Bye, Eric,” I said.

“Bye, Sookie,” he chuckled.

I hung up and looked around the kitchen. Well, shoot! Dinner was practically made. I figured I would finish making it anyways, and maybe Amelia and I could have it tomorrow night, during our girls’ night.

I finished cooking, then cleaned up the kitchen. I was at a loss as to what to do with myself. I ended up starting a new book, this time a mystery rather than a romance. I was really looking forward to starting back at school. I liked having summers off, but since I didn’t plan trips or anything, even though I would have liked to, they were often long. I had less than a month to go before back to school time, since teachers always started in mid August, rather than in September.

I was tired of reading, so I turned on the television. I had some episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recorded on my DVR, so I figured I would watch those. Whenever I watched, I always imagine the show coming to Merlotte’s, even though Merlotte’s wasn’t technically a ‘diner’.

Around nine o’clock, the phone rang, and I hoped it was Eric.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Sookie. It’s Eric,” he said. He sounded tired.

“Hey. Is everything okay at Fantasia? Did you see Bruce?” I asked, worried.

“Yeah, I talked with Bruce, and there is definitely something shady going on.”

“Is it bad?”

“Bad enough that we’re gonna have to get the police involved. I’ll tell you all about it, the next time I see you.” I understood that he didn’t want to talk about it over the phone.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I wasn’t sure what else to say.

“Thanks. We’ll figure it out. I’m just tired. And hungry.”

“You haven’t eaten?”

“Not since lunch, no. I was too stressed out after Bruce called.”

I bit my lip. I was totally thinking about bringing his supper to Fantasia. The supper that he was supposed to have! Would that be too clingy? I decided to give it a shot.

“Can you wait an hour?” I asked.

“What? Why? Are you…”

“I made Gran’s chicken anyways,” I explained. “You deserve it, especially after tonight.”

“Sookie are you sure you want to drive all the way out here? It’s late, and-”

“It’s not late,” I laughed, “and I was bored tonight. I’d like to come, if you don’t mind?”

“I don’t mind,” he sounded a bit happier, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy that I could make him happy.

“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Sounds good. Don’t wait in the line if there is one, okay? Pam will be at the door checking IDs and she’ll let you in.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

“Bye, Sookie.”

I smiled. I was going to get to see Eric, after all! I reapplied some mascara, blush, and a dab of lipgloss. I was glad I hadn’t changed into my pajamas like I’d considered. I put a headband on and fixed my hair. I grabbed the chicken, and wondered idly if Eric had a microwave or something at Fantasia. I figured that if he wasn’t able to heat up the chicken, he would have said something when I’d offered.

I left Amelia a note, since I wasn’t sure what time I’d be back at. She worked at Merlotte’s tonight, but she didn’t have to close so she would be home around ten or eleven, whenever Merlotte’s seemed to empty out a bit.

Ames,

I’m gone to Fantasia tonight, since Eric got stuck at work.  
See you later tonight if you’re up/home.  
xox  
-Sook

 

I went to put my shoes on, but I hesitated for a second. I was just going to wear flats, but I wanted to look sexy. And Eric was tall, I rationalized. I was wearing a pretty black floral sleeveless blouse and my black jean short shorts. I put on my black pumps just to see and bit my lip. It did look pretty sexy. I was a short girl, and for the moment I actually looked like I had long legs! Score.

I locked up the house, then got in the car to begin the drive to Shreveport. I listened to the country station and sang along (badly) to the songs.

The drive flew by, and suddenly I was walking to the front doors of Fantasia. I felt weird bypassing the line, and I felt some people staring at me. Pam was indeed at the front door, checking people’s IDs.

“Well hello Sleeping Beauty. Don’t we look nice tonight?” Her eyes raked up and down my body. I guess Pam thought I looked sexy, too!

“Hi Pam, how are you tonight?”

“I’m fine,” she smirked. “Is Eric expecting you?”

“Yep.”

“Alright. I’ll see you later,” she purred at me. Pam made me laugh, because I was pretty sure she was just trying to embarrass me, and by extension, tease Eric.

I walked towards the office, but saw that the door was closed. Should I just go in? Knock? Was he still talking to Bruce?

I went and stood by the bar, and got my phone out to text him.

I’m here. Do I come into ur office? –S

I stood around awkwardly, waiting for a response.

“Sookie?” I heard a familiar voice call me name. I turned around, and it was Dawn Green. Suddenly something clicked in my head – Dawn was the leggy brunette that was talking with Eric, when I came back to see him! I hadn’t been close enough to see her face, I’d only seen her from the back, but I had thought she maybe looked familiar. I felt stupid for not having recognized her, but I had been pretty distracted that night, too.

Dawn lived in Bon Temps, and used to have some sort of thing with Jason a few years ago. She used to hang out around Merlotte’s, she even worked there for a while, but when Jason wouldn’t commit they had a huge blowout and now she avoided Merlotte’s since Jason was always there. I guess she found herself a new hang out spot.

“What are you doing here?” she smiled at me, as if it was funny that I was at a bar.

“Um…” I started, but then Eric came out of his office to find me. He wrapped his hand around my waist and I flushed. Dawn looked confused.

“Hi, Dawn.” Eric said.

“You two know each other?” Dawn raised her eyebrow at us.

“Sookie’s my girlfriend, actually,” Eric answered. My eyes shot up to his – girlfriend? Had Eric just called me his girlfriend? He smiled down at me, and then smiled at Dawn.

“Seriously?” Dawn asked. Ouch! I leaned in a little closer to Eric’s body, to prove a point to Dawn and to make me feel a bit better. Was it that freakin’ hard to believe Eric would like me?

Dawn huffed something under her breath and walked away without saying goodbye, which was okay with me. We were never really friends, and I think she hated me because I was Jason’s sister, too. Oh well.

Eric smiled at me, but I was still in shock, and my face must have looked funny.

“What was that?” I asked him, referring to the ‘girlfriend’ comment.

“Oh, Dawn? She was bugging-”

“No, I mean… You… you called me your girlfriend?” I was confused and shy.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean…” He said quickly. My face fell a bit. Was he only saying that for Dawn’s benefit?

“Shit, no,” he said, seeing that he had hurt my feelings. “I mean, I didn’t mean to call you that before, you know, talking to you about it?” Now Eric seemed insecure. Like I would say no!

“You… you want me to be your girlfriend?” I smiled shyly.

“I do,” he said, then gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. “Is that… okay with you?”

“Yes. I don’t bring chicken to just anyone, you know,” I teased. He laughed and kissed my cheek.

“Come on,” he said, grabbing my hand, “I’m hungry.”

We walked into his office, and I took the container of chicken out of my purse. I’d also brought him mashed potatoes, and a couple of dinner rolls.

“Do you have something to warm this up with?”

“I have a microwave in here,” he pointed to it. I hadn’t noticed that the last time I was in here, I thought. I think the only thing I had noticed was Eric’s butt.

We heated up his food, and then sat on the couch. I watched him closely as he took his first bite. He closed his eyes and moaned. Success!

“Jesus Sookie,” he moaned. “This is fucking fantastic.”

“I’m glad you like it,” I chuckled. “Now do you believe that everyone loves it? It practically made Gran famous at barbeques and potlucks.”

“Yes,” he agreed, and stuffed a big bite in his mouth. After he chewed and swallowed, he said, “You’re going to make me fat with all of your Gran’s southern cooking.”

“Maybe,” I laughed. “My Gran would be proud.” I smiled, knowing she would be happy that I was cooking her food for my man. My boyfriend.

Eric ate pretty quickly, which pleased me. Once he was done, he set his container aside and pulled me close.

“Thank you for cooking for me,” he whispered, and then kissed me.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, when we pulled apart to breathe.

“I want to cook for you,” he said.

“I’d like that,” I smiled.

“I think I’m going to be stuck dealing with all the accounting crap this week,” he frowned. “Can you come to my place for dinner next Sunday night?” He looked at me hopefully.

“That sounds good I smile.”

“Do you… do you have anything Monday?”

“No, I don’t think so. Why?” I asked.

“Just… incase you’re up late. Or tired,” he smiled and kissed me again. My heart fluttered, and I was wondering if he was inviting me to sleep over. If we would…

oh, Lord.

“What happened with Bruce?” I asked, when we took a break to breathe again.

He explained that Bruce had noticed some sort of pattern of missing money the last few weeks. He didn’t think he’d been making a mistake, but something was definitely wrong. It wasn’t a huge amount, but over time it would be substantial. That partnered with the missing alcohol, suggested that there was a thief at Fantasia. Eric looked worried and angry, and there was only one thing I could think of to do to cheer him up: kiss him. So, I did.

I ended up in his lap on the couch. Sweet Jesus this man could kiss. I’d never felt anything like this before. How could just making out turn me on so much? I was pretty sure it was turning Eric on too, because I felt his package under me and it felt… substantial. That just got me even more worked up. We started rocking against each other, and I thought I was going to die, or explode. But then there was a knock on the door and an, “Eric!”.

Stupid Pam!

We pulled away and he sighed. I climbed off his lap and returned to my spot beside him. I gave him a sweet smile, and he brushed a kiss into my lips.

“Come in,” he called out.

Pam swung open the door with an evil smile on her face.

“Hello, you two.” She practically cackled. “Eric, you need to come out front for a few minutes. There are people that want to talk to you.”

“Okay, I’ll be out there in a second,” he replied. Pam left and closed the door behind her.

“Do you want to stay? You could sit in my booth for a while,” he offered.

“That sounds nice, but I should probably get going before it’s too late. I have to drive and all,” I replied. I wasn’t going to risk falling asleep again!

“Okay,” he smiled.

Eric walked me back to my car, and gave me a toe-curling kiss. It was far too short for my liking, since Eric had to go back to work. I wanted to pout, but Eric had people to meet.

“I’ll call you later, okay?” He smiled.

“Okay. Goodnight, Eric,” I smiled back.

Driving home, I had stars in my eyes again. Or, maybe hearts. Was this what it felt like, falling in love?


	7. Shiver

SPOV

Eric texted me good night that night, and promised to call me the next day. I knew that it was going to be a long week, waiting for Sunday night to come. I hoped that we would at least talk on the phone throughout the week. I was too excited for our date, and felt that it was going to be a big night so I was a little bit nervous too. I’d never been with anyone but Bill, and I pretty much knew that Eric was no amateur in the sex department. I felt like I might be a little bit out of my league.

I wanted to buy something new to wear for Sunday night, maybe even something sexier than normal. Amelia agreed to go with me on Tuesday, because I knew I would need a second opinion. We drove over to Shreveport where they had some cute stores. We browsed through racks of pretty dresses. I tried on a half dozen, and while Amelia told me they all looked nice, I felt like something was wrong. I didn’t look right! I put the last one on, a pretty blue floral dress, and stepped out of the changing room.

“Aw, Sook that one’s pretty!” Amelia smiled. “You look adorable.”

I knew that she meant it as a compliment, but I didn’t want to look adorable. I wanted to look sexy for Eric, and all of these dresses were exactly like the dresses I already owned. I was going on a date, not to a Church picnic! I’d never despised my sense of style until this moment.

“Sookie? What’s wrong?” Amelia asked, concerned.

“Nothing,” I lied, but the stupid tears gathering in my eyes said otherwise. Dammit, maybe I was a little bit more nervous for my date than I thought.

“Sookie,” she said sternly, “tell me what’s wrong.”

“I just… I want to look good,” I said lamely.

“What? Sookie you do look good,” Amelia replied, confused.

“I look adorable,” I huffed, using her word, “but I want to look …special. You know, like sexy.”

“Why don’t you think you look sexy?” She raised an eyebrow at me.

“Come on, Ames, I’m wearing a floral sundress. This is how I always dress!”

“Has Eric made some kind of comment about wanting you to dress sexier?” She asked curiously, but I could hear the alarm in her voice.

“No!” I cried quickly. “Not at all. I just… you know Sunday night might be… you know?” I tried to be suggestive about what I hoped would happen Sunday night.

“You guys are gonna bang?” She asked. Jeez Louise, Ames could be so crude sometimes.

“Maybe,” I flushed. “So I want to look… sexy, you know? I… I want him to think I’m sexy.” There, I’d said it.

“Sookie, sweetie,” she said softly, “you don’t need to wear a slutty dress to be ‘sexy’. And trust me, I’ve seen the way that man looks at you. He thinks you’re sexy alright,” she reassured me.

“Am I being stupid?” I asked, feeling a few tears trickle down my cheeks.  
“No,” she replied, “you’re scared. I think that’s normal, Sook. But I’m not going to let you dress like a skank because that fucking asshole Bill made you insecure.”

I tried to deny it, but maybe Ames was right. When I had found out about Bill’s infidelity, I knew he was the one with the problem, but a little part of me had wondered why I hadn’t been enough. I really, really wanted to be enough for Eric.

“You’re right,” I sniffed, “and I’m sorry I’m being so weird right now. I’m just nervous, I guess. I want everything to be perfect.”

“I know,” she gave me a small smile, and a big hug. I hugged her tight. How was she so wise, especially about relationships?

“Okay,” she said, “now put your clothes back on. We’re going to find you the perfect dress.”

“You… I thought you liked the blue one?”

“Sookie, if you want to find something a little different, I’m okay with that. I just want you to do it for the right reasons, not because you think there’s something wrong with you. Let’s find a dress that’s a bit different from your usual, but that’s still ‘you’. Something that’s sexy in a Sookie way,” she laughed.

“Okay,” I smiled at her, and went back into the changing room to change.

We ended up at a different store in Shreveport, browsing through the dresses. I tried to pick out stuff that wasn’t too crazy, but items that I wouldn’t normally try on. Some of them looked okay, and some were too uncomfortable. But then I tried one on, and felt myself smile because it was perfect.

The skirt of the dress was white, and the top was white and pink and grey floral. The bust made my boobs look fantastic, and the straps were wide enough that they covered my bra. Between the breasts was a zipper, that I had no idea what it was for, but that made the dress look a bit less fancy, which was good. This was a casual dinner at his house, after all. The dress was short, much shorter than any of the dresses I wore. But it made my legs look great, and I didn’t feel uncomfortable in it at all. I peeked out of the changing room and asked Amelia if she was ready. I came out slowly, and her jaw dropped.  
“Damn, Sook! You have to buy this dress,” she gestured for me to spin around, so I did.

“Yeah? You like it?”

“It’s gorgeous, Sookie. Really. He’s not going to know what hit him,” she winked.

“It’s sexy in a Sookie way?” I teased, quoting her early criteria.

“It really is,” she laughed.

I bought the dress, and a pair of white pumps. Amelia teased me about buying ‘fuck me heels’ but I told her to hush.

xxx

Friday night I babysat Coby and Lisa. I usually only babysat for Arlene once or twice a week, the nights where Arlene’s mama couldn’t do it. She came in nearly at 1 am, while I was reading my book. I smiled at her and asked how her night was, knowing that Friday nights at Merlotte’s could be pretty busy.

“Oh it was fine, sweetie,” she replied, and plopped herself down on the couch.

“That’s good,” I said. “I’d better get goin’.”

“Alright, Sookie. Thank you. You know I ‘ppreciate it, right?”

“I do,” I laughed.

“You got anythin’ goin’ on Sunday night?” She asked shyly. “Rene Lenier asked me out on a date,” she smiled.

“Actually,” I blushed, “I have something that night.”

“You got a date, sweetie?” She asked.

“I do,” I smiled. “We’ve… gone out a few times.”

“Oh my gawd! You have a boyfriend, don’t you, Sookie Stackhouse?”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “His name is Eric. But please don’t tell anyone, okay Arlene? I want to keep it to myself for a while.”

“There somethin’ wrong with him?” she asked skeptically, and I chuckled. Hardly!

“No, it’s just that it’s new and I don’t want the town to be gossiping about it, or ruining anything.”

“So nobody knows? Not even Sam, or Jason?”

I frowned at her mentioning Sam. Everyone knew Sam has had a crush on me ever since I worked at Merlotte’s, which I found strange. He was my boss, and I considered him a good friend and all, but he was quite a bit older than me, and we met when I was still technically a freakin’ teenager! But that was old news, and I hoped Sam didn’t have any illusions about us dating.

“No,” I sighed. “I just don’t want any drama for now, ‘kay?” I knew Bon Temps, and I knew that people would bug me about Eric and wanting to meet him, and honestly I was nervous for Eric to meet everyone. Not that I was embarrassed of him, and I didn’t think he would be embarrassed by me, but after everything with Bill I was wary about how the town would react to my new ‘fancy’ Shreveport boyfriend. People in Bon Temps did not mind their own business; they never had.

“Alright, hun.” She smiled. “You have a good night, but you’ll have to tell me about your man one of these days, ya hear?”

“I will, Arlene, I promise,” I laughed.

When I got home, I texted Eric that I was home from Arlene’s and going to bed. We had been texting that night, me while babysitting and him while sitting at his booth at Fantasia. He sent his usual ‘sweet dreams’ text that made me melt, and I sent him my usual hugs and kisses. I was really, really, looking forward to seeing him again.

xxx

Sunday finally came, and I woke up with butterflies in my tummy. My day went much like the day of our first date had; I cleaned a bit, cooked, soaked in the tub. Amelia even helped me with my hair again, this time leaving it down in loose waves. She did my makeup again too, which I was grateful for. I was so excited that I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep the eyeliner pencil straight, with all my shaking.

I had my shoes, but it was picking my purse that was a bit of a conundrum. Eric had invited me to stay the night, hadn’t he? I didn’t really want to show up with an overnight bag. Wasn’t that a bit desperate? But I did want to bring a few things with me incase I did stay over, for the next day. I didn’t really want to do the whole ‘walk of shame’ thing Ames told me about. So I chose my biggest white purse, and stuffed it with a jean skirt, a tank top, a pair of panties, some flip flops, and a toothbrush. It didn’t look too obvious, I didn’t think. At least it was summer, and my clothes were tiny.

I called out goodbye to Amelia, and she replied to ‘have fun’, in a voice in which it was obvious exactly what kind of fun she wanted me to have.

Driving to Eric’s house, I realized I wasn’t feeling scared anymore. Sure, I was nervous, but I wasn’t scared. I may have had my little breakdown shopping with Ames, but I really did feel better. Eric and I had practically talked every night, and I just felt like I knew him, crazy as it sounded. At the very least, I knew he had some kind of feelings for me. The pressure that I had been putting on myself when I thought of being with Eric had somehow lifted, and now I was just looking forward to spending time with him. And if that was sexy time, so much the better!

I pulled up into his driveway with a smile. I hadn’t been to Eric’s house since my drunken adventure! I grabbed my inconspicuously packed purse, locked my car, and headed towards his front door. I rang the bell, and Eric opened the door seconds after I did. I wondered happily if he was watching for me.

“Why hello, Miss Stackhouse,” he smiled warmly.

“Hello, Mr. Northman,” I smiled right back. He practically pulled me into the house, and before I knew it, my purse was on the ground, I was in his arms and he was bringing my mouth to his for a sweet kiss.

“Mmm,” he smiled when he pulled away. “I’ve been waiting to do that all week.” His eyes finally scanned my body, and he got the chance to check me out now that his greeting kiss was out of the way.

“You look fucking gorgeous,” he said in a low voice, and I blushed at the intense look in his eyes. I kind of squealed on the inside.

“Thank you,” I chuckled. I looked him up and down, and he looked amazing, in dark jeans and a white button up shirt. “You look pretty gorgeous yourself,” I replied, blushing. I cuddled into his embrace. “Something smells good in here,” I remarked, looking up at him. Something did smell good.

“That’s our dinner,” he said, rather proudly.

“And what are we having?”

“Chicken fettuccine alfredo,” he replied. “You made me your favorite chicken, so I’ve made you mine,” he chuckled. I smiled at that, liking that he was sharing something with me through this, even if it wasn’t some kind of family history like Gran’s chicken.

“Do you want some wine?” Eric asked, as we headed into the kitchen.

“Please,” I replied. He poured us each a glass of white wine. I didn’t know what kind it was, but it was delicious. I sat at his counter, and we chatted a bit while he cooked.

“So, how is work going?” I asked.

“Okay,” he replied. “They haven’t found our thief yet, but I think this week the police is going to talk to everyone. This week was really just me and Pam asking people to talk or come forward or whatever.”

“I think Pam would be pretty intimidating,” I smiled, imagining Pam with the power of the police. Or her in one of those CSI style interrogation rooms.

“She really is,” he laughed. “But so far, nothing.”

“I’m sorry,” I said sympathetically. “I know this is hard for you.”

“It is. It sucks,” he sighed.

Dinner was fantastic. Eric’s sauce was delicious – rich and creamy. I was impressed that he had made it himself, and not from a jar. I looked forward to finding out what else he could cook. Like last time, I helped him clean the kitchen even though he protested. When the table was cleared and the dishwasher was full, we plopped onto his big cozy sofa.

We shifted so that we were both lying down, me cuddled into his chest. We chatted about nothing in particular, just digesting our dinner and enjoying the closeness. I felt like I’d known him forever, but our relationship was so new. How was that possible? He stroked my back, and I had to stop myself from letting out a happy sigh. It was amazing what his touch could do to me.

“Do you want to watch a movie or something?” he asked quietly, still stroking my back.

No, I really didn’t want to watch a movie. I wanted him to make love to me.

“No,” I whispered, and lifted my face so I could kiss his neck, then his cheek. He smiled down at me.

I shifted my body so that I was lying on top of him, every inch of our bodies touching. It felt different from when he was on top of my on my couch, but just as amazing. I needed him to know that I was initiating this – I wanted him. I kissed him as passionately as I could, pouring all of my affection for him, all of my hope for us, into it, and he responded in kind. We made out for what felt like ages, our bodies rocking and pressing against each other. The friction felt amazing. Then, I felt his hands under my skirt, much more sure than last time, cupping my bum. I moaned into his mouth. Oh my god.

“Eric,” I practically whimpered, looking into his eyes. I wasn’t sure how to say what I wanted – take me now?

“Sookie,” he whispered back, kissing me sweetly but running his hands all over me, under my skirt, his fingers brushing over my panties, between my thighs. I think I heard him gasp, and I knew it was because I was so wet for him. Holy moly, how was I going to survive this?

“Please,” I whispered, “bedroom.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I buried my face into his neck, my body feeling overwhelmed with the possibilities that awaited us.

Eric carried me into the bedroom and set me down on his bed, then covered my body with his. Lord, his bed was comfy too! But I was more preoccupied with the gorgeous man currently sharing it with me.

He returned to kissing me silly, alternating between my mouth and my neck as we rocked against each other. I wanted to get things started though, and started unbuttoning his shirt. I pulled the shirt off of him and threw it somewhere, anywhere. Lord his chest was perfect, so I ran my hands along the hard muscles. How was he so beautiful? I was totally prepared to yank off my dress, but he stopped me.

“Wait,” he whispered in a husky voice. “This has been taunting me all night,” he ran his finger along the zipper of the dress, placed between my breasts. He slowly pulled it down, until it ended just above the waist of the dress, exposing my white lace bra to him. He kissed my cleavage, and ran his fingers over my lace-clad nipples. I moaned softly.

Finally he grabbed the hem of my dress, and slowly brought it over my head, and threw it on the floor, with the same carelessness I had his shirt. His eyes took in my nearly naked body, and my matching white lace panties.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Sookie,” he whispered into my ear, before bringing his lips back to mine. We kissed and kissed as I held him close to me. I felt him reach behind me and unclasp my bra, and slowly uncover my breasts. I almost laughed at his expression – like he’d struck gold.

“Fucking perfect,” he murmured, before lavishing my breasts with kisses, grazing my nipples with his teeth. I cried out, feeling like nothing had ever felt this good. And we were only getting started!

Eric kissed and sucked his way down my body, until I felt his breath between my legs. Oh my god. He hooked his thumbs in my panties, and slowly dragged them off my body, until they were strewn on the floor with the rest of my garments. I was totally exposed to him, enjoying the feel of his hot breath on my center. He lightly kissed my inner thighs, until I felt his tongue on my folds. I closed my eyes, nervous since I’d never experience this particular delight before…

“Sookie,” he whispered, and my eyes flashed to his. “Look at me, min älskare.”

And then he returned to kissing and licking me, and I thought I might die again. I felt one of his long fingers enter me, and I cried out again.

“Eric! Oh…” I rocked against his hand, as he moved his finger in and out of me. Then his lips were around my clit, and when he sucked I felt the tension build in my belly in a way I’d never ever felt before. Eric, Eric, Eric, I chanted in my head, which translated to breathy moans out loud. Suddenly his finger reached a magic spot in me, a spot I’d never knew existed, and I cried out – the tension finally exploding. My orgasm was powerful, and I felt the aftershocks as Eric lapped at my juices.

“Oh my god,” I panted, “Eric.” He grinned at me, and sucked my juices off his fingers, which I just found sexy. He crawled back up my body and kissed me, and I tasted myself on him. I held him close to my body, still coming down from my high, and realized that he was still wearing his jeans. That was unacceptable!

We made quick work of getting his jeans off, and then his boxers, and, oh Sweet Jesus. That ‘substantial package’ that I had only gotten a brief introduction to in our make-out sessions? Well it was… oh my god. I hated to think of Bill at a time like this, but there really was no comparison. I wondered briefly if it would hurt? Eric must have noticed my internal panic, probably by my wide eyes that were staring at his penis, and brought me close to him. He kissed me, over and over, as he ran his fingers against my folds. My hips were moving rhythmically, and I knew I was ready for more.

“Please, Eric,” I whispered, brushing my lips against him. “I want you.”

He leaned over to open his nightstand and grabbed a condom. I watched, hot and ready for him, as he rolled it on. He pressed his body against mine again, and kissed me thoroughly. He ran his erection through my folds, creating amazing friction, and brushing against my clit, sending me little shocks of pleasure. I felt the head of his penis nudge my entrance and hugged myself closer to his body.

“Sookie,” he murmured, as he pushed gently into me. It was uncomfortable at first, because he was so big, but he moved slowly and gradually, working his way in. He panted heavy breaths into my ear, and I knew he was working hard to be as gentle as he was. I wrapped my legs around his waist, helping him to slide in until he was fully inside of me. I’d never felt so full in my life.

“Are you okay?” he brushed his fingers against my cheek as he gave me a moment to adjust.

“Yes,” I breathed. I looked into his eyes, and they were dark and hazy with lust. I wondered if mine looked like that, too.

“You feel so good,” he whispered into my ear. I shifted my hips a little, letting him know that I was ready for him to move.

He started to thrust slowly, gently, and I thought I was going to cry. It felt so, so good. My hands ended up on his perfect butt, helping him get as deep into me as he could. Eventually his thrusts started to get quicker and more forceful. I was able to keep up, my hips meeting his thrust for thrust. He kissed me hungrily, his tongue plunging into my mouth, and I’d never felt such primal passion before. I moaned incoherently, probably a mix of “oh my god,” “Eric,” and just “oh oh oh”.

“Fuck,” Eric groaned. “So, so good.”

He thrust harder and deeper, and I knew that my release wouldn’t take long. I was almost there – so damn close – but felt helpless.

“Eric,” I whimpered, “I…please…” I felt his thumb brush my clit, then start to rub circles around it. That was all it took, and I came as I screamed his name. He drove in deep as I contracted around him, and after a few more thrusts, he came screaming my name, too.

I clung to him, trying to make sense of this incredibly erotic and intimate experience I just had. I was not a virgin, but after tonight I wasn’t really sure if I’d every really had sex. Or maybe this was just a whole other level. I nuzzled my face into his neck, as he ran his hands along my body, caressing my skin.

 

“Fuck, Sookie, that was…” he seemed speechless, which I thought was probably a pretty good thing.

“Yeah,” I breathed into his neck, leaving him a few kisses there.

He pulled out of me and rolled off of me, which made me pout. He grinned and bit my bottom lip. “I’ll be right back,” he reassured me, leaving the room momentarily.

I laid in his comfy bed, sated and awestruck, and a little bit sleepy. He returned, after having disposed of the condom I imagined. He brought two pieces of cheesecake. I giggled and woke right up.

“We can’t forget dessert,” he grinned at me. “And we need to get our energy back up.”

“I never say no to cheesecake,” I laughed.

We sat in his bed, chatting, laughing, eating cheesecake, and kissing a lot. Before I met Eric, I only had imagined those kinds of things only happened in movies. After the ceesecake (and two glasses of milk!), and another spectacular round of lovemaking, we were sated, sleepy and ready for bed. I snuggled into his side, and he kissed my forehead, my hair, and everything that he could reach. I returned the favor by kissing his chest.

“Sweet dreams, min älskare,” Eric whispered.

“G’night, Eric,” I murmured sleepily. I made a mental note to ask him what that meant. I assumed it was Swedish…

That was my last thought before I drifted to sleep, comfortable in Eric’s arms.


	8. Here in Your Arms

EPOV

I woke up wrapped around a naked Sookie. I smiled to myself. I’d had a very, very nice time last night, and slept better than I had in a while. I huddled a little bit closer to her, inhaling her scent. Her skin was so soft and smooth, and she smelled so fucking sweet. Even after our strenuous activities last night, after I made her gorgeous body sweat, she still smelled fucking delicious.

I had wondered if she would be shy about sex. I knew that she was generally a pretty shy person, but apparently her lust for me overrode any fear or insecurity she might have had about getting physical with me. That thought made me smug. I felt myself get hard at the thought of what we had done last night. Fucking perfection. She was so warm and soft, and so incredibly sexy. And so fucking tight. I was worried I was going to hurt her, but I forced myself to be gentle and slow. Because I wanted to make Sookie feel good, give her more pleasure than she’d ever experienced. I thought I had managed pretty well in my goal. Especially when she suggested that no one had ever tasted her sweet little pussy before. What was wrong with that fucktard Bill? I pushed those thoughts out of my head. It was his loss, really. I would make it my duty to make sure that Sookie knew how fucking sexy and perfect she really was, and that definitely included giving her as many orgasms as I could.

I felt her shift in my arms, and figured she was waking up. She rolled over so that she was facing me, and gave me the sweetest smile. I smiled back.

“Good morning, Miss Stackhouse,” I greeted her formally.

“Morning, Mr. Northman,” she replied shyly. I chuckled. She was pretty fucking adorable. I pulled her a little closer to me, and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. She nuzzled into me, and we just enjoyed the quiet and the closeness for a while. Morning cuddling wasn’t something that I was used to, but I found that I enjoyed it. I figured I would probably enjoy anything that was with Sookie.

I started gently running my hands over her body, touching all of the flawless skin that I could. She practically purred in contentment, and I was pleased that my touch could do that to her.

“Eric?” She asked quietly.

“Mhmm,” I kissed her neck softly.  
“What… what did you call me last night? You know, when we were, um…” She looked almost nervous.

I shifted us so that she was on her back, and I was on top of her, every inch of our skin touching. I kissed her hotly then pulled back.

“Are you sure you want to know?” I teased. I wondered if she would be embarrassed – if I would get to see that gorgeous fucking blush.

“Yes,” she smiled up at me, her hands rubbing my arms.

“Well,” I kissed her neck, then her lips. “I called you ‘min älskare’,” I whispered into her ear. “My lover,” I murmured, brushing my lips against hers. I pulled back again, wanting to see her reaction to my words. Just as I expected, or hoped, I saw her face flush deeply. I laughed at her and she pouted. Fucking adorable.

“Really Eric?” she laughed, “your lover?”

“You don’t like it?” I nipped at her bottom lip. “Like in one of your Romance novels?” I teased. I’d seen one of those thick paperbacks lying around her house—those bodice-rippers. Not quite my taste in literature, but then I imagined Sookie didn’t read them for their literary quality. I wondered idly if she’d ever picture me ripping her bodice.

Sookie giggled and pulled me closer to her, and pressed her lips against mine. I liked that her shyness was fading quickly. I wanted her to be comfortable with me. I deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth with my tongue. There wasn’t much that could kill my desire for Sookie, not even morning breath. I pressed my body harder into hers, so that she could feel my hardness against her thigh. She moaned into my mouth, and arched against me. Jesus fuck, I needed to be inside her.

My hand trailed down her body, until it reached her warm center. I worked her pussy, preparing her, until she came for me. It was a beautiful sight, seeing her flushed not from embarrassment but from pleasure. That smug feeling threatened to return – I got to do that to her.

She reached for my cock and stroked it slowly. I groaned, it felt so fucking good to have her hands on me. I was happy that she was feeling a little bit bolder, too. I grabbed a condom and handed it to her.

“You do it,” I whispered, my voice heavy and rough. She nodded and bit her lip, looking nervous. I kissed her in reassurance.

Slowly, she rolled the condom onto my cock. I kissed her deeply as she placed me at her entrance. I pushed into her slowly, groaning at how fucking warm and tight she was. Her own moans threatened my control. I worked my way in, and like last night, stilled when I was buried to the hilt, giving her a moment to adjust. I watched her face—the light flush of her cheeks, her hooded eyes —and she looked so beautiful to me. I moved in and out, enthralled by how fucking amazing she felt around me, and the look of ecstasy that was on her face and in her little moans and cries.

Once we both reached our release, and I’d disposed of that annoying little rubber, we were once again cuddled together in my bed.

“What a way to wake up in the morning,” I murmured into her hair.

“I’ll say,” she giggled. We laid in silence for a few moments, until it was broken with the grumbling of my stomach. She giggled again, and then patted my stomach.

“Aw, are you hungry, Eric?” she teased me.

“Yes,” I huffed, pretending to be put off by her teasing.

“We should get you fed then,” she smiled, and kissed my cheek. I laughed.

“You want me to cook for you again?” I waggled my eyebrows at her. “Or do you want to go out for breakfast? There’s a great little breakfast place not too far from here.”

“Hmm,” she thought for a moment. “Even though I don’t want to leave this bed or get dressed,” she pretended to pout, “Out, I think.”

“Well, we might have to leave the house, but at least we have an excuse to take a shower first,” I murmured. “That sounds pretty good to me,” I pressed a little bit closer to her.

“Sounds good to me, too,” she gave me the most sweetly seductive smile.

As much as I wanted to fuck Sookie in the shower, it remained pretty PG. I took my time washing her body with my body wash, secretly happy that she was going to smell like me. That didn’t make me sound like a caveman, did it? Either way, I liked it. I washed her hair for her too, and it must have felt good for her because she was damn near purring. When I was done with her, she grabbed the body wash and gave me a good scrubbing. I had to bend down in a weird position for her to be able to reach my hair, but the feeling of her little hands on me was worth pretty much anything.

When we were done, I wrapped a giant fluffy towel around her, which she really loved.

“It’s so comfy,” she smiled and cuddled into it. I just laughed and kissed her.

We left the bathroom, and Sookie weirdly went down the hall instead of coming back to my bedroom. But then I remembered that her purse was in the hallway. She returned with clothing and I chuckled.

“Were you planning on getting lucky last night, Sookie Stackhouse?” I teased her.

“Well Eric Northman,” she sassed back, “someone made a not-so-subtle hint that I would, so yes.”

I laughed, because it was true enough. I had wanted to make it clear to her that she could stay over, without straight up saying that I wanted to have sex with her. I guess it was an awkward comment anyways.  
“Well,” I approached her and wrapped my arms around her, now that were both clothed. “At least now you know you can bring whatever you want over here. Clothes, or not clothes,” I waggled my eyebrows at her. She giggled and leaned into the hug.

Sookie didn’t take very long to get ready, which made me pretty happy because I really was fucking starving. I had showed her where the hairdryer was, but she braided her wet hair instead. I noticed she barely put on any makeup, too. I guess my assessment of women’s beauty processes were a bit skewed, considering Pam was pretty much my only reference, and had been for a while. Pam was definitely not a ‘throw your hair into a wet ponytail’ kind of woman.

We took my Corvette to the restaurant, and were seated in a little corner booth. I ordered bacon and eggs, and Sookie ordered waffles. We ate quickly, the both of us having worked up quite the appetite. We chatted about nothing in particular, and then told each other more about our week.

“I told Arlene about you,” she blushed a little. “I told her that I had a date, and she asked outright if you were my boyfriend, and I said you were. But I told her to, you know, keep it to herself.”

I wasn’t quite sure why she was telling me this—we weren’t a secret or something, were we? I mean, I certainly told Dawn very publicly that Sookie was my girlfriend…

“Oh, um, is this… do you want to keep this quiet?” I asked, a confused look no doubt on my face.

“Oh, no!” Sookie cried quickly. “That’s not what I meant I just…” she looked like she didn’t know what to say. Well, this was a bit awkward.

“It’s okay,” I tried to reassure her. “You just… aren’t ready for your friends to meet me?” I didn’t mean for it to come out as a question. I was not an insecure person.

“No, Eric,” she said quietly, grabbing my hand. “That’s not it. I want you to meet my friends and my brother. I know Arlene’ll love you, maybe too much,” she chuckled to herself. “It’s just… Bon Temps is a very, very small town and there are a lot of gossips in it. And this past year, because of Bill, I feel like I’ve been the topic of all the gossip,” she sighed. She rubbed my hand with her thumb. “I just,” she continued, “I’ve been enjoying the quiet, and having you, and us, to myself. I don’t want it to get ruined. I like you too much,” she finished quietly.

That made sense. I didn’t really have ‘friends’ to tell, but I guess that meant I didn’t really have anyone to give me a hard time over stuff either.

“I like you too, Sookie,” I smiled at her, and that made her feel better, by the smile that lit up her face when I said it.

We finished up, and the waitress came with our check. Sookie got out her wallet, and I made her put it away. She begged for me to let her pay, but I refused.

“Sorry, Miss Stackhouse,” I smiled. “It’s on me.” She pouted and I laughed.

“Can I at least leave the tip?” She asked, with those fucking doe-eyes of hers. I relented and she smiled.

We left the restaurant and walked towards my car. Sookie surprised me by grabbing my hand and yanking me to her. She reached for my face and brought my lips to hers. It was short and sweet, but I enjoyed it all the same. When we pulled away, Sookie gave me one of her sweet smiles.

“Thanks for breakfast,” she said.

“Anytime,” I chuckled.

We drove back to my place to lounge around for a while. I wish I’d told her before that I had a pool, because it was a hot day that would have been well spent soaking in the pool and soaking up the sun. I certainly would have enjoyed a day of Sookie only in a tiny bikini. Sookie seemed pretty excited by the fact that I had a pool, and I smiled at the thought that I would be able to get a bit more use out of it than I currently was.

We spent the afternoon cuddling on the couch, watching a movie. We watched The Avengers, and I was pretty happy that Sookie didn’t try to get me to watch a chick flick. I was just getting used to the idea that I enjoyed cuddling; I didn’t think I was ready to try and enjoy a Matthew McConaughey romantic comedy. Sookie did, however, make comments about Captain America having a cute butt, and I growled playfully at her, squeezing her to me.

“Don’t worry,” she giggled, “it’s not as nice as yours.”

“Good,” I grumbled.

“You’re more of a Thor, anyways,” she teased me. I laughed and kissed her lips.

“You’d look pretty good in Black Widow’s outfit,” I suggested. She guffawed.

It was a nice afternoon. I was always down for sex, but just spending a G-rated afternoon together doing something totally normal was kind of a new experience. I liked it, more than I thought I would or could.

I invited Sookie to stay for dinner, hoping I didn’t sound like a clingy teenager – no, don’t leave me!—and she thought about it for a moment, but declined.

“I promised I’d have dinner with Ames,” Sookie told me, a little bit regretfully.

“Fine,” I sighed playfully, walking her to the door with her hand in mine.

“I… I had a really good time, Eric,” she said shyly. I wondered why she was being so bashful.

“Me too,” I smiled.

“I really mean it,” she said sincerely. “I never… I never really imagined I could have something like… this. I sound stupid,” she blushed. I held her face in my hands and gave her a soft kiss.

“You don’t,” I reassured her. “I get it,” I said quietly. Because I did. It was something we had in common; our bad previous relationships tainting any hope for a good one. We kissed for a bit longer, reluctant to let our awesome two-day date come to an end.

“If I don’t go now I probably won’t,” she smiled up at me.

“I’d be okay with that,” I assured her.

“We don’t need Amelia coming on a hunt for me, though,” she laughed.

“I guess not. Especially if she gets Pam’s help,” I added.

I gave her one more kiss, and then she walked to her car. I watched her from my doorway, and waved to her as she pulled out of the driveway. She waved back, and I watched her as she drove away.

I knew it was early in our relationship, considering we’d only known each other for all of a month, but I was cautiously hopeful. Something I wouldn’t admit to Sookie, or Pam, or even myself, really, was that my house seemed oddly quiet after Sookie left. And my bed seemed pretty empty.

xxx

The next week, Sookie and I were sitting at my booth at Fantasia, after having had dinner at her house. We’d cooked together this time; I grilled us some steaks on the barbeque while she made salads and baked potatoes. It had been oddly domestic, but nice. I was sipping on a beer, and Sookie was drinking her standard gin and tonic.

“I’m going to the ladies room. I’ll be right back,” she kissed me on the cheek before sliding out of the booth.

“You can use the employee bathroom if you want,” I offered. The lines for the normal bathroom could get long.

“Okay,” she smiled.

I waited for her for a few minutes, but then my phone vibrated. I had a text. From Sookie?

Eric you have to get in here!

Confused, I replied:

the bathroom?

Yes!!

I chuckled, and left the booth. I knocked on the door and Sookie swung it open, and pulled me inside.

“Sookie, are you trying to take advantage of me in a public place?” I leered at her.

“No, Eric!” she cried, her cheeks flushing. “Listen,” she whispered, pointing towards the vent.

I got as close to the vent as I could, my height being a great help, and listened. It turned out you could hear conversations from the employee’s lounge, which was right beside my office, through that vent. I listened quietly, and was able to hear the conversation fairly clearly.

“Ginger, I told you that it’s fine.”

“But baby-”

“No,” the voice growled, “I told you to shut up. Nobody suspects a thing.”

My jaw dropped in shock, because I was pretty sure the voice belonged to Longshadow. I knew that he and Ginger were fucking, because it was pretty obvious by their interactions and by the amount of time they spent together on the security tapes. But I’d never heard any of their conversations, and I’d never had any reason to be suspect.

“Who is it?” whispered Sookie.

“Longshadow,” I whispered back. Sookie’s eyes went wide, obviously understanding the gravity of the situation. Longshadow was fucking stealing from my fucking bar.

I whipped out my phone and sent Pam a text.

Meet me in the employee bathroom

What the fuck?

Now, Pamela

I knew she would know I was serious by my calling her Pamela. We waited a few moments, hoping that Longshadow and Ginger would keep their conversation going until Pam got hear to witness, too. Sookie grabbed my hand and stroked it with her thumbs. I was grateful for the gesture of comfort.

Pam didn’t knock, of course; she just walked right in. She grinned at me and Sookie, no doubt thinking dirty things, much like I had.

“Really, guys? Kinky,” Pam smirked.

“Oh, hush,” Sookie scolded in a whisper, and it almost made me smile. But I was too focused on what was happening on the room next to ours.

“Listen,” I whispered to Pam, motioning to the vent. She approached it cautiously.

We all listened, and it sounded like Ginger was crying. She obviously felt guilty about helping Longshadow steal, and Longshadow was yelling at her, worried she was going to give them up. Pam looked furious, raising her eyebrow at me. I simply nodded, knowing that she understood exactly what was going on.

Pam and I bounded towards my office, and Sookie came in a few moments later.

“What do we do?” Pam asked, breaking the heavy silence.

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I guess we go to the police.”

“Do ya’ll need evidence to do that?” Sookie asked.

“I don’t know,” I repeated. It would probably help.

Sookie grabbed something from the pocket of her skirt. It was her cellphone.

“I think I may have recorded some snippets of her conversation,” she admitted. “I stuck it in the vent when I realized what they were talking about…” She looked nervous.

“Really?” I asked. I took the phone from her and pressed play. Sure enough, parts of the conversation were recorded. It wasn’t great quality, but you could make out what they were saying. It was a good thing Longshadow didn’t use his indoor voice when he was angry.

“This is amazing Sookie,” I thanked her. “Even if it’s not valid information, it’s enough to prove to Longshadow that we know what the fuck is going on. Maybe he’ll come clean,” I said, but not really believing it.

“Good,” she smiled.

“What made you listen to the conversation?” I asked. Sookie didn’t seem like one who thrived on gossip, so I couldn’t imagine her enjoying overhearing other people’s conversation.

“She… she sounded like she was crying,” Sooke said. “I wanted to see if she was okay, or if I could do something.”

I bent down and gave her a kiss. She was sweet, a kind of sweet that I just wasn’t used to.

“Thanks, Sleeping Beauty,” Pam grinned at Sookie. “I’m going to have a lot of fun torturing Longshadow about this.”

“You’re welcome, Pam,” Sookie said.

Pam left the office to return to watching over the bar, and to no doubt watch over Longshadow and Ginger once they exited the employee lounge.

“I’m sorry,” Sookie hugged me.

“Why are you sorry?” I wrapped my arms around her.

“I know Longshadow’s been here for a long time,” she shrugged. It was true, Longshadow had been here since Fantasia opened. Me and Pam had even briefly discussed letting him into the business with us. I was fucking overjoyed we hadn’t gotten that far yet.

“It’s okay,” I said, even though it really wasn’t. I was pissed that someone I had trusted fucked me over.

“Are you going to call the police now?” She asked.

“First I’m going to contact Bruce, the accountant, and the attorney we had contacted about the issue. Then I’ll confront Longshadow, once I get the o.k.”

She nodded, and I sighed. I was upset, and I knew this week was going to be shitty. Sookie squeezed me a little bit tighter, as if she knew.  
“I’m gonna get going,” she whispered, and I tried not to pout. She was becoming my security blanket. It was getting pathetic.  
“Okay,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Eric?” She looked up at me. “Come over, after you’re done at the bar.” She was almost whispering. “I know it’ll be late… and if you just want to go home to bed I totally understand,” she started to backtrack. “But you know if you want to talk about it or…” She was so totally sweet, and I cut her off with a deep kiss.

“That sounds amazing,” I said honestly. Getting lost in Sookie sounded like exactly what I wanted right now.

“Good,” she smiled at me. She left a few minutes later.

I closed the bar with Pam, trying to act like I was not incredibly angry and, let’s face it, a little bit hurt. Not in a broken hearted way, but in the way that you’re hurt by betrayal. Longshadow wasn’t a friend, but I considered him a colleague of sorts.

I went back to my place quickly, to grab myself a change of clothes for the next day. I was glad I lived close to the bar. It was late to drive the long drive from Shreveport to Bon Temps, but I knew it would be totally worth it. I shot Sookie a text to let her know that I was on my way.

When I got to Sookie’s house, she was waiting for me at the front door. She was wearing an adorable little pink nightgown, and looked like she might have been napping. She grabbed my hand silently, and led me up to her bedroom. She climbed into bed, while I stripped off my clothes. I slid into the bed beside her, wearing only my boxers.

Sookie snuggled into my side, and I pulled her close, breathing in her scent. I wasn’t sure how the touch or smell of her skin could give me so much comfort, but I was too tired to question it.


	9. Must Have Done Something Right (part 1)

SPOV

Just as I’d imagined, the week after Longshadow was ‘caught’ as the Fantasia thief was pretty crazy for Eric. He didn’t get too much into the gory details of what happened, but he did say that Longshadow wasn’t being very nice, or apologetic. Those were my words, of course; Eric had told me that Longshadow was being a “fucking asshole,” and that he wasn’t sorry now but he was going to be. I’d blanched at that, imagining some kind of gangster movie, and asked if Eric was gonna get someone to put a hit out on Longshadow. He laughed at me, and called me adorable. All he said on that topic was that one thing his father did leave him with, apart from money, was good lawyers. Very good lawyers, in fact, that would always have time for him.

Before I knew it, it was almost the end of August and time for me to go back to school. I was excited to go back to work after a long summer, but at the same time I was a bit sad because I knew that I wouldn’t have as much time to see Eric. We did operate on opposite schedules, after all. It wasn’t like I was going to be able to hang out at Fantasia until all hours of the night. The thought made me sad, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I knew we would work something out. I really wanted to.

By the time the students returned to school, the first week of September, things were going well. Eric had gotten the Longshadow thing under control, so he wasn’t so stressed or angry anymore. Or hurt—I still remembered the puppy dog eyes he had that night when I’d asked him to sleep over. Poor baby.

Things were good for Ames, too. She’d started seriously seeing Tray. I think her and Pam had had a brief fling of some kind, but she didn’t really elaborate on that. She just said that her and Pam were better suited as friends, even if they were attracted to each other. I pretty much assumed that Amelia was looking for something a bit more serious than Pam was. I asked Amelia if it would be weird for her to hang out with Pam in the future, and she told me that it would be perfectly fine. There were no hard feelings, I guessed.

Eric and I had a little bit of a quarrel over how we’d find time for each other. He had innocently assumed that I would go to Fantasia at his beck and call, but I quickly put that thought to rest.

“Eric!” I had cried. “I’m an elementary school teacher! I can’t spend all my free time at a bar! And I have to sleep some time, you know.” I frowned at him.

“Sorry,” he shrugged. “I just figured it would be the easiest thing?” I glared at him.

It was our first potential fight, but Eric went all sweet on me. A few hours later he made everything better.

“I called Pam,” he said. “We moved our meetings with Bruce to Mondays. So now we can have Sundays totally to ourselves,” he smiled at me.

“What! Is Bruce okay with that?” was my genius response.

“Yes,” Eric chuckled. “It was fine with him. Is that… okay?”

I felt tears well in my eyes—I was totally pms-ing.

“Yes Eric, that’s wonderful,” I threw my arms around his neck. “Thank you,” I whispered.

“You’re welcome,” he chuckled. “And you know… I can come over to your house for dinner during the week, maybe. If it’s early enough,” he suggested. I smiled.

“I can meet you in Shreveport for dinner every once and a while too,” I offered. I had to be flexible, after all. He had just changed his work schedule for me.

“I’d like that,” he said, and then kissed me. He was so good at it.

We were still in the early stages of our relationship, but I thought things were going well. We got along well and had fun together, and our bed-time activities were pretty much the most amazing thing ever.

xxx

I was in the grocery store on a Saturday morning, around eleven. I was making dinner for me and Amelia tonight, then Eric would come over after he finished at Fantasia, pass out, then we’d have Sunday to spend together.

I pushed my cart down the cereal aisle, and Maxine Fortenberry was there, comparing brands of Bran Flakes.

“Hey Maxine,” I smiled at her.

“Morning, Sookie,” she smiled back. “Now when are you gonna bring that young man of yours ‘round?” She asked. I froze. What the hell? How did she know I had a young man?

“Who… who told you I have a young man?” I tried to laugh.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she looked thoughtful. “Heard it ‘round Merlotte’s I think. Eric’s his name? Why, don’t be shy, dear, I’m sure your beau’s a nice young man.”

“Yeah,” I chuckled uneasily. “Well, have a good afternoon, Maxine,” I said quickly and practically ran way.

Darn it, Arlene! Nobody else but Amelia knew about Eric. I trusted Ames, because even though she liked attention she did not gossip, and I knew that she knew how I felt about Eric and our relationship. She knew better than that. Arlene, however, I wasn’t so sure! I huffed all the way back home. Who else knew about Eric now?! I would totally have to hide inside my house now, since I was sure the news of my new ‘beau’ had probably made its way around Bon Temps.

I was putting away my groceries when someone knocked at the door. I was pleasantly surprised to see Jason there.

“Hey Jase,” I smiled at my brother. We talked to each other every now and then on the phone, or when I’d go to Merlotte’s with Ames. Sometimes he came over for dinner, if he didn’t have any dates or whatnot. But most of the time he didn’t really show up unannounced for random chats.

We hugged, and then I asked him what he was doing here.

“Well I was workin’ on a road just around the corner from here,” he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Jason worked on the road crew for Renard Parish. It was rare they worked on Saturdays, but not unheard of.

“You hungry for lunch?” I teased, assuming he wanted to raid my fridge.

“Sure, Sook,” he smiled sheepishly. I was right!

“Sandwich okay?” I asked, opening the fridge.

“That sounds good,” I replied.

I got together the ingredients to make him a ham and cheese sandwich. There was a silence, and I wondered if something was up with him.

“You okay, Jase?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “When were you gonna tell me you got a boyfriend?” He asked. I froze. Again! Oh, Jesus! I wasn’t ready for this conversation with him!

“Who told you that?” I asked, my voice accusatory. I was gonna kill Arlene.

“Well it sure as heck wasn’t you, was it?” he huffed at me. I rolled my eyes. We didn’t talk about stuff like that.

“Come on, Jase. Was it Arlene?” I asked. “I swear to God…”

“Naw, Sook it was Dawn.”

“Dawn?” I asked, a little bit confused. “Are you seeing her again?” That would be just great, since I was pretty sure she hated me a little bit. Or resented me in the very least.

“Yeah, we’ve been… spendin’ time together,” he grinned, and I cringed. I hoped they wouldn’t date, because I really didn’t feel like seeing Dawn more than I absolutely had to. I stayed quiet, hoping that he would just drop the subject. Of course, he didn’t. Dang it, why did he have to choose now to have an attention span?

“So?” he pressed. “You got yourself a man, Sook?”

“Yes,” I sighed. “I have a boyfriend. Named Eric.”

“An’ he owns that bar in Shreveport, Fantasia?” He questioned.

“Yes.”

“Ain’t he a player, Sook? Dawn said-”

“Jason Stackhouse!” I stopped him. “Don’t you dare accuse my boyfriend of somethin’ when you haven’t met him,” I said. “Anyways, don’t believe anything Dawn said about him. She’s just jealous cause she had a crush on him,” I scolded him.

He frowned when I said that, but too bad. I swear to God, the nerve of that woman!

“Sorry, Sook. You know I want ya to be happy and stuff. It just sucked to hear it from Dawn, is all.”

“I know, Jase. I’m sorry,” I sighed. “I just wanted to have a bit of peace before I subject the poor guy to Bon Temps,” I huffed.

“Well, I want to meet ‘im.” Jason crossed his arms.

“Okay,” I said, uncertain. “Um… I’ll ask him when he’s free?”

“Why not tonight?” Jason asked.

“Jason, he works!”

“Fine,” he huffed. “What about tomorrow?”

I wanted to pout. Tomorrow was supposed to be our super awesome day just to us. Did I really have to bring Jason into things?

“Fine,” I agreed. “You can come over for dinner, if you want.”

“What about Merlotte’s?” Jason countered.

“You want us to come to Merlotte’s?” I asked. “Why?”

“Why not?” Jason narrowed his eyes at me. “There somethin’ wrong with this guy, Sook?”

“Of course not!” I cried out in frustration. Why was Jason doing this to me?

“Then ask him to come to Merlotte’s,” he shrugged. “If he don’t want to, if it ain’t fancy enough…”

“Oh hush,” I swatted at him, as he finished his sandwich. “I’ll ask Eric and see what he wants to do. Okay?”

“Alright,” Jason said. “Call me later. Well, maybe tomorrow. I might have me a date tonight, since we ain’t hanging out.” Jason winked at me. Big surprise there.

“I’ll talk to you later,” I said, walking him to the door.

“Later, Sook,” he waved, walking to his truck.

Sunday night at Merlotte’s? With Eric and Jason? That would be fun.

xxx

I had my dinner with Amelia, and told her about Jason wanting to meet Eric and bring him to Merlotte’s. She laughed, really hard, and wished me luck with that. She started laughing even harder when she received a text from Sam, asking if she could replace Holly on Sunday.

“I get to watch!” Ames practically squealed with joy, and I glared at her. Not funny.

“Come on, Sook. It’ll be fun! Eric gets to meet everyone! Jason, Tara, Lafayette, Sam…” she waggled her eyebrows at me. “And whoever else is there, too. And if word gets around that you’re bringing your sexy new man to town, Merlotte’s might be busier than usual,” she laughed.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “You’re not helping.”

“Cheer up,” she patted me on the back. “If you’re serious about Eric, and I think that you are, then this is inevitable, right?” she smiled at me.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “I do want Eric in my life, in every part of it. I’m just… scared, I guess.”

“Talk to him,” she suggested.

She was going out with Tray for drinks and dancing later that night. I was invited to go along, but I wasn’t really in the mood. I would have been home in time to receive Eric, but I kind of wanted the night to myself.

I did a little bit of laundry, went over my lesson plans for the week. I checked my email and my banking stuff, and then put some of my comfy pajamas on. They were cute, too, though. They may just be pajamas, but I didn’t want to greet Eric in an old Minnie Mouse nightie. Which I totally still had, by the way.

I crawled into my bed and read. I’d let Eric know that I left the door unlocked, so he could just slip in whenever he was done, and lock up. I dozed off around midnight. When I heard him come in, I glanced at the clock. It was 1 am. I smiled; Pam must have let him go early. It was kind of nice that Pam was so supportive of our relationship, even if she was a pain in the butt sometimes. I knew that they really loved each other, in a platonic familial way.

I heard him tiptoe in, him probably assuming that I was already asleep. What a sweetie.

“Hey you,” I said sleepily.

“Hello, my lover,” he whispered. He liked to tease me with that, but I secretly liked it. Especially when he said it in Swedish. He was sexy all the time, but even more so when he spoke Swedish to me.

I watched him strip down to his boxers in the dark. He crawled into bed beside me, and pulled my body into his chest. I snuggled into him; he smelled so good.

“Pam let you leave early?” I smiled.

“Mhmm.”

“She must really like you,” I laughed.

“No, she really likes you,” he squeezed me. “How was your day?”

“Meh,” I tried to shrug. “It was okay.”

“Just okay?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Jason wants to meet you.” There, I said it.

“What? You told him?”

“No, Dawn did,” I chuckled. I don’t know why it was funny.

“Dawn? What are you talking about.”

“Dawn and my brother used to, um, date. And apparently they started again,” I shrugged.

“You know Dawn? I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, I do. She’s from here. The last time that we saw her I guess I got distracted when you called me your girlfriend,” I smiled into his chest.

“Oh. Well, that’s okay, right? I’d like to meet your brother.”

“Really?” I looked up at him.

“Yes really,” he chuckled.

“Okay. He wants us to go to Merlotte’s,” I sighed.

“That would be fun,” he said. I looked up to see if he was being sarcastic.

“It would?”

“Yeah. I mean, you and Amelia talk about it a lot. I’d like to see it.”

“Okay. But I’m warning you now, people are going to be nosy.”

“That’s fine,” he said, and I burrowed closer into his chest. He was being so sweet.

“Okay. I’ll call Jason tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he smiled, and kissed me. Mmm, he was so good at it.

Since he was here earlier than I thought he would, and we didn’t have to get up early the next morning, we had some time to kill. He moved on top of me, kissing me deeply, and my heart fluttered as it usually did when I thought of making love to Eric.

Later, after two fantastic orgasms, I was laying in his arms almost asleep.

“Night, min älskare,” he whispered.

“Night, Eric,” I whispered back, as I drifted off.

xxx

We had a leisurely morning together. We woke up late, around 11, and then took some time to enjoy each other. This urge to constantly be close to each other, to make love, I had never really experienced it before. I liked it; it was nice. I made him breakfast, some eggs, biscuits, pancakes, and bacon. Eric loved my homemade biscuits, which made me smile. Bill had always enjoyed the fact that I cooked, but he never had really loved the actual food that much. He liked it, I guessed, but he didn’t love it the way Eric seemed to. I frowned, not liking that I was comparing Eric to Bill. Really, there was no comparison to be made.

“You okay?” he asked, noticing my silence.

“Yep,” I kissed his nose. “I’m gonna call Jason, while you finish up.” It was passed noon, which meant that it was safe to call him.

The phone rang a couple of times, and then Jason picked up.

“Hello?” Jason answered, his voice rough. I assumed he was probably just getting up.

“Morning, Jase,” I said, even though it was the afternoon. “I didn’t wake ya, did I?”

“Naw, it’s fine, Sook. What’s up?”

“Um, I just wanted to let you know that Eric and I are okay for Merlotte’s tonight,” I said.

“Awesome, Sook. I’ll see ya there. ‘Round six?”

“Sounds good, Jase.”

“I’ll see ya later.”

“Yep, bye”.

I walked back into the kitchen, where Eric was starting to clean up. I didn’t have a dishwasher like Eric did, so we actually had to do the dishes ourselves. Eric didn’t seem to mind though, and we chatted as he washed and I dried them, and then put them away. It was like our little routine.

We lounged on the couch, digesting our food. I put on the TV, since I’d taped a few episodes of CSI-like shows that I knew Eric liked. There were so many of them on these days. Eric smiled at me.

“Did you tape these for me?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I smiled back. He looked weird, maybe amused, but said nothing.

“What?” I laughed. It wasn’t a big deal, was it?

“Nothing, it’s just… nice of you. Thank you.” I was rewarded with a kiss.

“You’re welcome,” I chuckled.

Eventually, it was time for us to get ready for our big supper out. We showered, unfortunately not having the time to do the fun stuff we had done the last time we’d showered together. Eric put on his usual jeans and t-shirt combo, this time light grey jeans and a black v-neck. He looked gorgeous, as always. I stared into my closet, wondering what I should wear. I finally picked a pair of tight black jeans, and a cute pink-y red t-shirt that was trimmed in black lace at the neckline and around the arms. I decided to wear my black pumps, so I looked cute and didn’t look so freaking short beside Eric. It was only Merlotte’s, but I still wanted to look nice. I put on a little bit of eyeliner and mascara, and left my hair down, having blow-dried it straight.

“Ready to go?” I asked him, when it was six o’clock. Jason was rarely on time, so I knew not to rush to get to Merlotte’s exactly at six.

“I am,” he said. He looked me up and down, which made me blush. “You look very nice tonight, Miss Stackhouse.” He placed his hands on my hips, and gave me a kiss.

“So do you, Mister Northman,” I smiled.

“Is it okay if I drive?” he asked, reaching for his keys.

“Of course,” I smiled at him. “Jason’s gonna love your car, by the way. He’s strictly a pickup truck guy, but he does appreciate cars. You’ll have to show him.”

“Sounds good,” he laughed.

Merlotte’s was suspiciously busy for a Sunday night, and I feared that Amelia had been right: people were totally here to spy on us! We walked in hand in hand, and I led Eric to what I was pretty sure was Jason’s usual booth. Arlene was the first to greet us.

“Sookie!” She squealed. “Is this your man?”

“Hey, Arlene. This is Eric,” I smiled, trying not to blush. I watched Arlene check out Eric. She obviously liked what she saw; she was practically drooling.

“Well hey there,” she said flirtatiously. Good grief! “Nice to meet ya, Eric.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Eric said, smiling. He glanced at me and winked.

Arlene went to get us menus to look at. Not that I needed one, of course, since Merlotte’s food hadn’t changed much since I worked there all those years ago. I ordered myself a diet Coke, and Eric ordered a beer.

Next to come over was Sam. I got up to give him a friendly hug.

“Hey Sam,” I smiled.

“Hey Sook, good to see you.” He glanced at Eric, and didn’t seem quite as impressed as Arlene was.

“You too. This is my boyfriend, Eric.” I kind of liked introducing him that way. Eric and Sam shook hands.

“Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about this place,” Eric said.

“Good to meet ya,” Sam nodded.

The atmosphere was a little bit tense, and I guessed that Eric probably picked up on Sam’s ‘vibe’ that Ames insisted he had when he was around me. I didn’t really notice it. Thankfully Amelia came over to our table to save us.

“Hey guys,” Ames winked at us. “Full house tonight, isn’t it?” She grinned evilly at us.

I heard someone call “is that Sook?” and then before I knew it I was wrapped up in a hug.

“You finally brought yo’ man to see me, girl?” It was Lafayette who was crushing me in a hug.

“Yes, Lala,” I giggled. He looked beautiful, wearing his fake lashes and glittery eye makeup. He was wearing a purple headscarf, too.

“This him?” He focused on Eric with his eyebrow raised.

“Yep. This is Eric. Eric, this is my friend Lafayette.”

“Mmm mmm. Girl, that is one fine specimen,” Lafayette grinned at me, as if Eric wasn’t right there.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Eric winked at Lafayette playfully, and Lafayette pretended to fan himself.

“Girlfriend, I need details later, okay?” Lafayette smiled at me.

“Of course,” I chuckled.

“Ooh, Mr. Jason just walked in here,” Lafayette grinned. “Good luck, baby girl, and you too, Mr. Viking.” Eric laughed at his nickname.

Jason waved at me and walked towards the booth. We got up.

“Hey Jase,” I smiled. We were all standing, and Eric pretty much towered over my brother. “This is Eric. Eric, this is Jason.” The two men shared a rather tense handshake, Jason clearly inspecting Eric.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Eric said. “It’s good to meet you.”

“Good to meet ya too, even though I haven’t heard all that much about you,” Jason gave me a look. I rolled my eyes.

We all took our seats in the booth, and Eric scanned the menu. Arlene came over with Jason’s beer, knowing already what he would order to drink.

“There ya go. You just holler when ya’ll are ready to order, ‘kay?” Arlene said, winking directly at Eric. Jeez, she could be a little subtler.

“Thanks Arlene,” I said, trying not to tell her to stay away from my man. Jason gave Eric a weird look, I assumed because Arlene was flirting with him. Instead of Jason, I bet.

“So Eric, you got a bar over in Shreveport?” Jason asked. I hoped he wasn’t gonna mention Dawn. He wouldn’t, would he?

“I do. It’s called Fantasia.”

“It ain’t one of those with all that crazy dance music, is it?” Jason asked.

“No,” Eric chuckled. “There’s music and dancing, but it’s not really a dance club or anything. You should come check it out sometime.”

“Alright, man.” Jason took a sip of his beer.

Arlene came over to take our order, but Lafayette butted in front of her.

“Sook, I don’t care what you wanna eat. I’m makin’ you and that fine ass man of yours one of my special burgers, ‘kay? It’s new, but not on the menu. It’s perfection, if I do say so myself.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.

“Okay,” I giggled. “Eric?”

“I’ll eat whatever you want to make me,” Eric said, giving Lala one of his sexy smirks. Lafayette practically squealed.

“You want yo’ regular order, Jay?” Lafayette asked.

“Yeah, man. Thanks,” Jason nodded.

Arlene glared at Lafayette for having stolen her job, and walked away, asking us to call her if we needed drinks.

“Lafayette seems fun,” Eric smiled.

“Yeah, he’s a hoot,” I chuckled. “And a great cook,” I added. It was true; Lafayette was creative, and a perfectionist too.

Jason kept glancing at Eric with a funny expression. I thought it would be a good idea for them to maybe talk on their own for a second. I looked over at the bar, and Tara was behind it. I waved at her and decided to go over to talk to her for a few minutes, giving Eric and Jason some time alone.

“I’m just gonna go say hi to Tara,” I told them. “I’ll be back in a sec.” I walked away, hoping that things would go okay.

“Hey, Tara,” I smiled at her.

“Hey, Sook. How’s it goin’?” She smiled back, looking over at Eric.

“Good. Yes, that’s my boyfriend,” scowled playfully.

“I wasn’t gonna say nothin’,” she laughed. “I don’t wanna be like any of the old gossips in this town.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind you meeting him, of course. I just wanted to give Eric and Jason a chance to talk for a second, without me there.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“I think they’ll be okay,” I smiled, turning to watch them.

EPOV

Sookie walked away, and I wondered if she’d done it on purpose. Jason didn’t seem too scary. I took a sip of my beer, wondering if there was going to be an inquisition.

“So,” Jason leaned into me. “I gotta ask, and all, since I’m Sook’s brother. What are your intentions with my sister?”

I tried not to laugh, thinking back to that night at Fantasia when Amelia had asked me pretty much the same thing.

“You don’t have to worry about me,” I said. “I like Sookie. A lot. In a way that I… didn’t think I would like anyone.” I didn’t really feel comfortable talking to Jason about my ‘love life’, since he was a stranger and all. But he was Sookie’s brother, and I owed it to her to be honest with him.

“Good. Cause you know, I heard some things about you, from Dawn. I know Dawn can be a bit crazy though, so I ain’t gonna let that make me think you’re a bad guy.”

“Yes, she can be a bit…nuts,” I chuckled. “I’ve had some casual relationships, Jason. I’m not gonna lie. But things with Sookie are anything but casual.”

“You better deserve her,” he warned me.

“Well, she likes me enough to be with me,” I chuckled. “I must have done something right.”

“Good. That asshole she dated before didn’t. And really hurt her,” Jason said, and I could see the protectiveness in his eyes. “I don’t want that to ever happen to her again.”

“Yeah, she told me about that fucking asshole. I would never hurt Sookie like that. Ever.”

“That’s good. You may be bigger than me, man, but if you hurt my baby sister I would find a way to fuck you up,” Jason said with a grin, and I knew he was joking. Kind of.

“I believe it,” I chuckled. Sookie had said it was a small town. I imagined Jason could get his own army of angry townspeople to go after me. With shotguns.

We chatted for a bit, and Sookie came back to the booth. Our food arrived pretty quickly, and we dug in. Lafayette’s burger was really good; I was impressed. Jason and I got another beer, and Sookie ordered a piece of pie. Jason was telling us about a new girl he had seen a few times, named Crystal, when he abruptly stopped.

“What is it, Jason?” Sookie asked.

“Since when does he eat at Merlotte’s?” Jason muttered, as if he hadn’t heard her.

“Who?” She asked, and we both turned to see who had walked in.

“Bill fucking Compton,” Jason scowled.


	10. Must Have Done Something Right (part 2)

SPOV

I was pretty shocked to see Bill walk into Merlotte’s. It was not a secret that Bill didn’t care for Merlotte’s when we were together, so I saw no reason as to why he would suddenly enjoy eating there now. I must have tensed up, because I felt Eric put his hand on my leg in a soothing gesture.

“He better not try to talk to ya, Sook,” Jason muttered. He was not pleased to see Bill there, that was for sure.

“Don’t worry about it, Jase,” I said, trying to be nonchalant. I was over Bill, but that didn’t mean I wanted to run into him everywhere. I wondered if it was a coincidence that he was here, or if he, like the rest of the town, wanted to check out my new man. Whatever. Bill’s business had nothing to do with me.

“You okay?” Eric asked quietly.

“I’m fine,” I smiled at him, and gave him a kiss. I was there with him. How could I not be okay?

Sure enough, Lorena trailed in behind Bill a few moments later, not looking particularly happy to be there. We watched, as did everyone else in the room, as they walked towards an empty table. Eric was watching intently, and I imagined he was trying to put a face to the horrible names I’d used to describe Bill.

I finished up my piece of apple pie, and eventually Jason’s best friend Hoyt joined us at the table. I’d always liked Hoyt, because he was so nice and well-mannered. I wasn’t really sure how they’d become best friends. I guess the saying ‘opposites attract’ can work for guy friendships, too.

“Hey, guys. Mind if I join ya?” He asked politely.

“Have a seat,” I smiled. He sat down beside Jason.

“I’m Hoyt,” he extended his hand to Eric. I wondered if Jason had already filled him in on what was going to happen tonight.

“Eric. Nice to meet you,” Eric shook his hand. We chatted for a while, until Jason suggested we played a game of pool.

“Okay,” I agreed. “But I’m not very good,” I warned them all.

“Me neither,” Eric chuckled.

“But you work at a bar,” I teased him.

“Mhm. A bar without a pool table,” he reminded me playfully.

“We’ll make a great team,” I smiled at him, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

Jason was watching us curiously, and Hoyt was kind of smiling at us. Whatever. I was allowed to kiss my boyfriend in public, darn it! I didn’t want to be all insecure just because I lived in a nosy town.

We all got up to play pool. Jason and Hoyt were pretty much experts. Eric was pretty good, even though he swore he didn’t play very often. I, of course, was horrible. I always had been. I guess I just didn’t have good aim? Or the pool stick thingy was just too darn long.

“Damn, man. You sure you don’t want to trade Sook in for another pool partner?” Jason teased.

“Hey,” I pouted.

“Nah,” Eric chuckled. “Besides,” he smoldered at me, “I like watching you shoot way too much.” He was looking at my butt.

“Pervert,” I laughed, wrapping my arms around him. He squeezed me to him, and gave me a kiss. A good, good kiss.

“Aw man, that’s my sister,” Jason complained, but I could hear a smile in his voice.

“Sorry,” Eric chuckled, but I knew he wasn’t really.

“I’ve got to go to the bathroom. It’ll give you time to catch us up,” I chuckled, patting Eric’s chest. I reached my face up to his for one last kiss, and he obliged me.

“You’d better take your time, then,” he laughed, when we separated.

“Oh hush,” I said and then walked away with a smile. I thought it was going okay, so far. Jason didn’t seem to hate Eric, and Eric didn’t seem to hate Jason. After his lunchtime visit, I hadn’t really been sure of what to expect from Jason.

I peed quickly, and then touched up my lip-gloss in the bathroom mirror. I smiled at my reflection, thinking of how Eric liked this gloss because it was fruity, and he said my lips tasted like candy.

I left the bathroom still smiling, but it left my face as I was facing Bill Compton, who had grabbed my arm. I wondered why the heck he had waited until now to talk to me, until I realized that from where we were standing, by the bar, we were hidden from Lorena’s sight. I hoped Bill was careful, though, because we were clearly in Jason and Eric’s sights.

“Sookie, may I talk to you for a moment?” he asked, rather formally.

“I guess,” I said, yanking my arm away from him.

“I just… you are looking very well, Sookie.” He scanned my body, which gave me the creeps.

“Thank you,” I said.

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been great,” I said. “How about you? I heard the wedding was really lovely,” I said politely, trying not to laugh out loud thinking about what Amelia had said about it.

“Well, yes, I… I am sorry, Sookie,” he said softly, and I wished he would stop saying my name. “I… I would have loved for you to be there.” He took a step closer to me, and I cringed internally. “I truly would have. But Lorena didn’t want you to come because she knew how I felt about you…” He looked pained. “I never wanted to hurt you, with any of this…”

A long time ago, I would have believed Bill. He looked so sincere, so saddened. I would have believed that he cared about me and was sorry that he had broken my heart. But now, I knew that it was all an act. If Bill cared anything about my feelings he would not have done any of the awful things he had done while we were together. Now, knowing all of the BS he had sold me during our relationship, I knew this ‘sorry’ act was BS too. Bill hadn’t really loved me; I was a game to him, a prize. He was just a really fantastic liar. And even now that we were apart, that he was married, he was still lying to me.

“It’s fine,” I smiled brightly. “I actually met Eric the night of your wedding,” I gestured towards him. “And I wouldn’t have, if I’d been there.”

“Yes, your new… friend.” Bill said.

“My new boyfriend, yes.”

“The man who works at a bar?” Bill raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed.

“He owns a bar, yes. Fantasia,” I said, starting to lose my patience.

“Sookie, I know you must be lonely, after everything that happened between us,” he said. Excuse me? “But I… I can’t help but worry that all of this seems quite out of character for you.”

“Excuse me?!” I said it out loud this time.

“Honestly, Sookie, spending your nights at some kind of nightclub? It’s just… not like you. I would hate to see you become something you’re not merely because you’ve been feeling lonely.” I wanted to slap the ‘concern’ right off of his face, and I was about to, until I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around my waist.

“Everything okay here, min älskare?” Eric asked in a low, sexy voice. Oh boy, he was gonna put on some kind of show, wasn’t he? I would have thought this was beneath us, trying to bother Bill, until Bill’s little speech tonight.

“Yep,” I smiled up at him. “Eric, this is Bill. Bill, this is my boyfriend Eric.”

Bill was pretty much glaring at Eric, but he managed to shake Eric’s extended hand. Neither said anything; they just looked at each other in a tense silence.

“Well, thanks for your concern Bill,” I gave him a polite half-smile. “I’m good, though, okay?”

“Concern?” Eric asked, raising one of his eyebrows. Why did it look so sexy when he did it? I realized, though, that I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t want to start anything between them.

“Yes,” Bill said coldly. “I was merely letting Sookie know that, as a person that knows her very well, I found her recent activities, and company, to be rather worrisome. I just want what’s best for you, Sookie.” That concerned puppy look was back on Bill’s face, and I wanted to punch it. I looked up at Eric and paused. His eyes were glacial, furious. I realized that I recognized that look on his face from the night we found Longshadow. Well that wasn’t good.

“Sookie, I think Tara wanted to talk to you about something,” he murmured to me, just loud enough for Bill to hear. I realized that he was asking me to leave him and Bill alone for a few minutes. I hesitated, wondering if it was a good idea to let this happen. Surely Eric wouldn’t beat him up, would he?

“Okay,” I conceded. I didn’t want Bill to come between us in any way, so I decided to give Eric his time to deal with the issue. Eric could be an intimidating man; maybe Bill would leave us alone.

Eric gave me a sweet kiss on the lips, and I smiled up at him before I walked away.

I sat at the bar, and Tara was smirking at me.

“You really gonna leave them alone?” she asked. I realized she could see the whole thing happen, but not really hear the conversation.

“I don’t wanna have to throw your man out of my bar, Sook, no matter how much I hate Bill Compton,” Sam teased me. I knew he wouldn’t let things get that far. There weren’t too many fights at Merlotte’s.

“It’ll be fine,” I smiled. I hoped it would be!

EPOV

I wanted to kick the living shit out of Bill, but decided against it. It wouldn’t really be making a very good impression on the town of Bon Temps if I assaulted someone in the local bar, would it? I decided that maybe the scary-quiet thing could work for me. I’d done it before.

I looked down at the piece of shit. I towered over Bill, which made the whole intimidation thing easier. He started to look uncomfortable, and shifted his eyes, which was when I figured I could start speaking.

“Listen, Bill,” I said in a cold voice, “you know nothing about me, or my bar, or about my relationship,” I emphasized, “with Sookie. So I will ask you, very politely, to shut the fuck up.”

“I’ve heard what people have been saying about you,” he narrowed his eyes, “and your womanizing ways. Does Sookie know? How do you think it feels for Sookie, hearing about her philandering boyfriend’s exploits?” He was trying to look scary, but was failing.

“Really, Bill?” I laughed dryly. “You’re going to lecture me on ‘womanizing’? How do you think it felt for Sookie, knowing you fucked another woman while you were together? Hearing the whole town talk about the fact that you fucked another woman while you were together?” I moved closer to him. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re up to, acting like some kind of friendly neighbor. Let me tell you this: I know from Sookie herself that she has absolutely no desire to be your friend. Until that changes, which I very much doubt, you had better stay the fuck away from her. Do you understand?” I asked quietly.

I had practically backed Bill up against the wall, and it looked like he was going to say something else. If he did I would have no choice but to knock him the fuck out. But then I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Jason.

“Hey man, everythin’ alright?” Jason asked. “You know, Sam don’t like no violence in his bar. So if ya’ll are gonna fight, we can take it outside,” Jason said, looking straight at Bill the whole time. It was a brilliant way to threaten the man, and I smirked.

“No, Billy boy and I are good. Right?” I asked.

Bill said nothing, but gave a brief nod, then walked away. Me and Jason watched him scamper off, back to his snotty-looking wife.

“Sook said you’d be alright, but I didn’t want ya to murder a man on your first night at Merlotte’s,” Jason grinned.

“I really don’t think it would be worth it,” I chuckled.

“Nah, it wouldn’t be.”

“The man’s a twat,” I said. Jason just laughed.

We walked back to where Sookie was chatting with Tara, Hoyt, and Lafayette, who was apparently off kitchen duty for the moment.

I wrapped my arms around Sookie and kissed the top of her head.

“Everything okay?” She smiled up at me.

“Of course, min alskare.” I kissed her on the lips. I didn’t want to say ‘my lover’ in English in front of her friends, because I knew it would embarrass her. But she blushed anyways. Adorable.

“Well ain’t you two just the cutest damn thing,” Lafayette sighed, smiling at us. “Tara, I want me a man like that.” Tara rolled her eyes, and we all laughed.

“He sure is an improvement, isn’t he?” Amelia piped up, rather loudly. I wondered if she wanted Bill to hear it. That made me chuckle.

“I’ll say,” Lafayette waggled his eyebrows at me, and I winked at him. He was funny.

The night quieted down, and Sookie and I got ready to leave. Sookie ended up paying for dinner, after I tried to hide the bill from her.

“I wanted it to be my treat,” she pouted. “You’re my guest here.” She gave me the doe-eyes that I couldn’t resist.

“Fine,” I relented, and she smiled. “I get to leave the tip, though,” I said, which was what she usually said when we went out, and then kissed her thoroughly.

“Okay,” she breathed. Jason had been watching the whole exchange and shook his head at us. We weren’t that bad, were we?

We said goodnight to the whole Merlotte’s crowd. Bill and Lorena had already left by then, so there was no tension left in the air. Lafayette told us that I had to come back soon. Well, he said I had to get my “fine ass” here soon. I gave him one of my panty-melting smiles and told him I would come see him some time. He giggled.

Jason was last, and we shook hands.

“You’re alright,” he said.

“Thanks,” I chuckled. “I’m glad we finally met.”

“Yeah, me too. See ya’ll round, I guess.” He hugged Sookie goodnight, and promised to call her sometime this week.  
“That was fun,” Sookie said, once we were in the car.

“It was,” I agreed. “Everyone’s pretty cool. I think Lafayette liked me,” I teased her.

“I think Lafayette more than liked you,” she giggled. “You did good,” she smiled up at me. “But what happened with Bill? What did he say to you?”

“Bill informed me that I’m known as a manwhore around Bon Temps,” I told her, rolling my eyes. I expected her to ask me what the fuck I was talking about, but she was quiet.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I think you can thank Dawn for that one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Jason told me one day that Dawn had told him that you were a ‘player’. So she was probably spreading that crap around town. To get back at you, or me. Hell, maybe even to get back at Jason.”

“Jesus, I’m sorry.” I said, grabbing her hand.

“It’s okay,” she smiled at me.

“No, Sookie, I-”

“No, Eric,” she cut me off. “It doesn’t matter at all what they say.”

“It doesn’t?” I asked skeptically. She had been mighty concerned with the town gossip not too long ago.

“Nope,” she smiled, and I could tell it was genuine. “You wanna know why?”

“Why?”

“Well, I figured out something, while we were hanging out with my friends, spending time together tonight.”

“What was that?”

“I’m happy,” she said simply. “I’m happy with you. Happier than… than I’ve been in a long, long time. I won’t let that get ruined. Besides, news travels fast. Soon people won’t be talking about your man-whoring ways, they’ll be talking about how adorable we are, and how hot Lafayette thinks you are,” she grinned at me. I kissed her hand again, relieved that she felt that way.

“So what did you say to Bill to get him to go away?” She asked curiously.

“I told him that his help was, while appreciated, not wanted.” I winked at her.

“I’m sure,” Sookie chuckled.

“I told him to stay the hell away from you until you decided that you want to see him again.”

“He’s gonna be waiting a long, long time, then.”

“I know. And Jason may have helped me threaten him in a very polite but scary way,” I laughed. “You’re brother’s pretty good at that.”

“Yeah, Jason knows his way around a fight and stuff. He did play high school football. I’m glad you two got along okay. You know, he didn’t try to fight you so that’s always good,” she chuckled.

We got back to her house, and as soon as we were inside, my mouth was on hers.

“Are we going upstairs?” she whispered against my lips.

“Yes,” I growled. I picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around me. I carried her to her bedroom, and laid her down on her bed. I crawled on top of her and kissed her until we couldn’t breathe.

“Thank you for tonight,” she whispered. “How does it feel, having the Stackhouse seal of approval?” She smiled.

“I thought I already had it,” I laughed, kissing her nose.

“I guess you did,” she ran her fingers through my hair. Her voice and her eyes held so much affection that I felt this sudden and intense need to be closer to her, to be inside of her.

Quickly, we stripped each other of our clothes. I stroked and kissed as much of Sookie’s soft skin as I could. Her sweet little noises of pleasure were driving me fucking insane.

“Eric, please,” she murmured. Sookie wasn’t in the mood for teasing, and I had to say that I felt the same. I grabbed a condom from my jeans, and rolled it on. I realized that Sookie was watching me, with a hunger in her eyes that was so fucking sexy.

I rolled us so that Sookie was on top. I fucking loved it like this; she felt so damn good and looked so gorgeous. I dipped my fingers into her warmth to check her readiness, and she was so wet for me it made me say, “Fuck, Sookie”.

I placed myself at her entrance, and she lowered herself onto me slowly. We both broke out into moans; she felt so fucking good. Once I was fully inside of her, she rocked gently against me, biting her lip. I knew she was a bit shy in this position, so I helped her move her hips. Eventually, we found our rhythm and Sookie lost her inhibitions.

“You are so fucking gorgeous,” I murmured.

“Eric,” she whimpered, “Oh my god.”

I felt Sookie clamp down around me, which triggered my own release. We clung to each other, Sookie’s face hidden in the crook of my neck. I stroked her hair and kissed all the skin that I could reach.

I got up to dispose of the condom, then crawled back into bed, getting into the cuddling positions that had become oddly natural to me. I liked holding Sookie, feeling her snuggled into my body. It felt right.

“I don’t want to leave this bed,” I confessed.

“You can stay over,” she said. “If… if you want to.”

“I do want to. I just didn’t want to sound clingy.”

“You’re not clingy if I want you to stay too,” she said, and then kissed my chest. I squeezed her to me.

“Good. I’ll stay then. What time do you have to leave for work?”

“Eight. That’s not too early for you, is it?” she teased. She knew I liked to sleep in, mostly because owning and overseeing a bar meant late nights.

“Nope,” I chuckled. “That gives me more than enough time to get home, have lots of coffee, and meet Pam and Bruce.”

“Okay,” she murmured sleepily. It was cute how sleepy she got after orgasms.

“Good night, Sookie,” I kissed the top of her head.

“Night, Eric,” she snuggled further into my side, and I smiled.

xxx

Sookie’s alarm clock went off way too early. When I saw that it was only 6:30, I groaned. Sookie giggled and kissed my cheek.

“Go back to sleep, Eric,” she laughed. I did.

When she came back into her room to wake me up, it was 7:30 and she was dressed and ready to go. She looked beautiful, in a little blue short-sleeved dress. It was a good thing she didn’t teach high school, or else all of the teenage boys would be in love with her. She sat down on the bed beside me.

“Are you ready to get up, Mr. Northman?” she smiled sweetly at me.

“Mmm,” I responded.

“You’re cute,” she laughed, and kissed my nose. I swatted at her playfully.

“Do you want something to eat?” she asked.

“Too early for food,” I pouted.

“Of course it is,” she laughed. “I’m gonna have a piece of toast. I’ll be in the kitchen.” She kissed me on the lips, and this time I responded. I held her to me for a moment.

“Sorry. That’s a proper good morning,” I said.

“Yeah,” said breathlessly.

I got myself dressed then followed her downstairs into the kitchen, where she was having a piece of toast and a cup of coffee. I watched her eat.

At eight, we were out of the house and she was locking her front door. I walked her to her car.

“Have a good day at work, Miss Stackhouse,” I told her.

“Thank you, Mr. Northman. Have fun with Pam and Bruce,” she replied.

“I always do.” I pulled her to me and kissed her deeply. It was still my favorite thing to do, even though we did many, many other things that I enjoyed. I inhaled her scent. She smelled so sweet, especially since she had just showered.

“I’ll call you tonight,” I promised.

“Okay,” she smiled. “I… Have a good day, Eric.” She kissed me on the cheek, and got into her car.

I drove back to Shreveport with a smile on my face.

xxx

I walked into Fantasia at nearly 1, freshly showered and caffeinated. I had a bowl of cereal, opting to eat something small since Pam and I usually went out for lunch on our Bruce days. I had debated taking a nap, but imagined Sookie scolding me playfully.

Pam was already at the bar, of course.

“Well hello, there, Prince Charming. Have a good weekend with Sleeping Beauty?” Pam smirked.

“Why yes, Pamela, I did.”

I told Pam about my weekend, about everything that went down at Merlotte’s. She laughed a lot, calling me and Jason ‘frat boys’ for having bullied Bill. Whatever. He got what was coming to him.

“So let me get this straight,” she said. “You were with Sookie from the moment you left the bar Saturday night, until eight o’clock this morning?”

“Yeah,” I said. What was she getting at?

“You’re serious?”

“Yes?”

“And you’re not sick of her? You don’t want to dump her?”

“What? No. What are you talking about, Pam?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, clearly thinking hard about something.

“Pam?” I asked.

“Ha,” she cackled. I raised my eyebrow at her.

“You’re in love with her,” Pam said.

“What?” I cried. “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked her.

“Look at your face, Eric,” she said, grinning evilly. “You are so totally in love with Sleeping Beauty. You really are Prince Charming,” she laughed.

“Pam, stop. Seriously,” I said. I was not going to talk about it with her.

“Come on, Eric, admit it.”

“I’m not,” I said.

“I call bullshit.”

“That’s nice for you, but it’s still not true.”

I could admit that I was on my way there, and I could still see myself loving her in the future. But was I really in love with her now? Already?

“It’s only been a few months,” I reminded her.

“And why does that matter?” Pam asked.

“Because it’s too fast, Pam. Seriously. Now can we please drop it?”

“Fine,” Pam pouted. “But when you realize that you’re being a fucking idiot, and that you do love her, I better be the first to know. Well, after Sookie of course.” Pam smirked at me.

I just walked away.

But later that night, as I was lying in bed, after having talked to Sookie on the phone for almost an hour, I thought about my conversation with Pam.

SPOV

When I got home from work later that day, Amelia was home.

“Hey Ames,” I called to her, as I took off my shoes.

“Hey, Sook. How was work?” She asked.

“It was good. I have a really good group of kids this year. I think it’s gonna be a good one,” I smiled.

“Good stuff,” Ames replied.

We sat down in the kitchen and snacked on some pretzels and sweet tea.

“So,” Amelia began, “the adventures at Merlotte’s went okay yesterday?”

“Yep, they were fine. Eric didn’t kill Bill, and Jason didn’t start anything with Eric. That’s a success in my books,” I laughed.

“Well everyone at Merlotte’s liked Eric. Especially Lafayette,” she winked at me. “Even Sam admitted that you guys were cute together.”

I smiled. People’s approval wasn’t necessary for my relationship with Eric, but having it was kind of nice anyways.

“I’m glad,” I replied.

I told her a bit about what happened with Eric and Bill, about what Bill had said to me and how Eric had dealt with it.

“Bill is such a douche,” Ames shook her head. “I can’t believe that he expects you to believe that he’s your friend who is looking out for you.”

“I know,” I agreed. “He’s delusional. Lorena was freaking with him!”

“You’re okay with how Eric handled everything?” she asked.

“Yeah, I am. He was assertive without being all possessive and caveman. He was really great yesterday,” I smiled a huge smile, the one that I always had on my face when I thought about Eric.

“Oh, sweetie,” Amelia smirked at me.

“What?” I asked. She was staring at me funny.

“Come on,” Amelia said, raising her eyebrow.

“What, Ames?”

“Sookie. Come on.”

“What do you want me to say?” I asked.

“You know. How you’re feeling right now.”

I waited a beat.

“I’m totally in love with him,” I admitted.

“I know!” She squealed. “It’s written all over your face.”

“I’m not sure how this happened,” I sighed. “But I love him. Is it too soon?”

“Does it feel too soon?” Amelia asked.

“No.”

“Then it’s not. Are you going to tell him?” She asked.

“No, not yet, I don’t think. I think I’ll keep it to myself for a bit. ‘Til I’m more sure,” I decided.

“Alright, Sook,” Amelia nodded. “Just don’t keep too much bottled inside, okay, sweetie?”

“Okay, Ames.”

Things were going so well with Eric, and I didn’t want to mess things up. I had almost said it as I said goodbye to him that morning. It would have been so natural; an ‘I love you’ before heading off to work in the morning.

But things with Eric had happened so fast and so unexpectedly, that a part of me knew it was a good idea to keep this revelation to myself, at least for a little while. But, I realized, I wasn’t scared, and that was what was really amazing.


	11. Sigh No More

EPOV

Time went by pretty quickly, and before I knew it, it was late November. Things with Sookie were going well. In all honesty, I couldn’t name one person that I’d ever gotten along with as well as I got along with Sookie.

We’d only had one real fight, and it wasn’t something I ever wanted to experience again, though I assumed in all likelihood we would fight in the future. It had all started out when we went out to Merlotte’s for dinner again, in October, with Jason. We both had a lot of fun. Sookie’s friends were great. Plus, there had been no more encounters with Bill. But when it came time to pay our tabs, I’d paid for myself and Sookie, and for Jason too. Sookie had given me a look, but I didn’t think too much of it. She thanked me politely and told me I didn’t need to, like she always did, so I thought it was okay. But later that week, I went into Best Buy for a part for my laptop. I saw a really cool DVD box set that had Gone With the Wind in it, which was Sookie’s favorite movie, and other cool movies I thought Sookie would like. So I bought it, not really thinking anything of it.

I went over on the Friday night for an early dinner at her place before I went to Fantasia.

“I got you something,” I told her, handing over the Best Buy bag. She took out the collection, and furrowed her brows.

“What’s this?” she asked, staring at the box.

“I thought you’d like it,” I shrugged. She was still quiet, and then I noticed that I hadn’t taken the price tag off, and she saw that I’d spent like eighty bucks on it.

She flipped out.

I wasn’t even sure what she was freaking out about, to be honest. I was caught so off guard, and she wasn’t even making that much sense. Was she upset that I bought her a present? My experience was more with women expecting to buy them shit, not getting pissed at me for doing it. And it wasn’t like I’d bought her a freaking diamond bracelet, either.

“Sookie, they’re just movies,” I said, not quite understanding what was wrong.

“Yes, I see that Eric, but what the hell!” she cried. “You can’t just drop a hundred dollars on me like it’s no big deal!” She was getting really upset. I didn’t know what to do. I listened to her rant, and it started to sound like somehow my buying her something nice was somehow me being high-handed or something.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I finally exploded. “I didn’t come over to get yelled at for nothing, Sookie.” She looked shocked, but she was quiet. “I’m just gonna go to work, okay? I’m sorry for ruining your night with my horrible fucking present.”

I walked out of her house, and drove to Shreveport, feeling fucking pissed and quite confused. What the hell had just happened?

I was in a bad mood for the rest of the night. I told Pam to fuck off when she badgered me about what was wrong. It was none of her business what ‘crawled up my ass’. I didn’t even look at my phone to see if Sookie had texted.

But when I was sitting in my office, I realized that I probably hadn’t handled the situation very well. Sookie was not the crazy irrational woman that had yelled at me tonight. Something was obviously wrong, and instead of asking her what was going on, I stormed off. Fuck. She had been a bitch, but I had kind of reacted like an asshole, hadn’t I? I felt a little bit guilty.

I left the bar around two a.m., and when I arrived at my house, Sookie’s little yellow car was sitting in the driveway. I pulled in and got out of my car, and Sookie emerged from hers, wearing little plaid pajamas under her sweater. She ran towards me, and wrapped her arms around me.

“I’m so sorry, Eric,” she said into my chest.

“Me too,” I scooped her up and brought her inside. We got into my bed, lying down face to face. I wanted to figure out what the fuck had happened tonight.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks.

“What happened, Sookie?” I asked, as nicely as I could.

“I… I don’t know,” she sniffed. I held her close to me so she would know that we were okay. “I just… money’s always been a thing for me,” she said. “We didn’t grow up with much, and I’ve always been pretty self-sufficient, you know.” I nodded. I could tell that, based on her ever-present desire to pay for dinner.

“It bothers you that I spend money on you?” I asked, which seemed like the logical conclusion.

“Yes. No. I…” she was crying a bit more, so I wiped at the tears and tried to calm her down.

“It was so nice of you,” she whispered. “And then I felt bad for liking it. And…” she went quiet.

“And?” I prompted her.

“With Bill… whenever he used to spend money on me, it was… it was like it was for him. He bought me a dress once, which was sweet. But then he used to tell me when to wear it. And he bought me a really lovely bracelet, and all of a sudden I had to wear that too. And he’d brag about it. I realized one day that… maybe he was ashamed of me.” She started to cry a little bit harder, and I kissed her hair.

“I’m not ashamed of you,” I said, stroking her back. “I’m not Bill.”

“I know you’re not, I do.” She nuzzled into me.

“And I don’t expect you to carry the box set around with you all the time and, you know, show people that I bought it for you.” I tried to make light of the situation, hoping to make her smile. She did.

“Thank you,” she laughed.

“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have left.”

“I was afraid you hated me. I tried to text you, but you didn’t reply. I thought I ruined everything,” she said quietly, but interrupted me before I could say something. “But I know why you did. I was being an a-hole,” she sighed. “A really crazy one. I’m so, so sorry. I had a crappy week, and I took that, and my leftover Bill-issues, out on you.” I squeezed her to me.

“It’s okay, Sookie. But I still shouldn’t have walked away like that, or ignored you. I was kind of an asshole, too. I promise the next time I’ll handle it better.”

“The next time I yell at you for no reason?” She smiled, eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

“Yeah,” I teased her. “The next time we fight,” I clarified.

“I don’t want to fight,” she pouted. “I felt so, so awful. I hated myself for making you feel bad…”

“I know. So did I.”

I held her to me for a bit, but there was a topic I wanted to breach, and I wasn’t sure how she’d react.

“Sookie?”

“Yeah?”

“I just… I’m just going to say this once.” She nodded. “I have money, Sookie. A lot of it. My parents were very wealthy people, and since they’ve passed away I inherited that wealth. So no, spending money is not something that bothers me, or something that I worry about. But this is the first time, ever, that I’ve had the chance to share that money with someone. And I want to, okay? If I make you uncomfortable, you can tell me. But I just want to make you happy. Making you happy makes me happy,” I said the last part quietly. I sounded so fucking cheesy, didn’t I?

Sookie didn’t say anything, but when I looked down at her she was crying again. I groaned; I hated her tears.

“You’re perfect,” she cried into my side.

“No, I am not perfect,” I chuckled.

“To me you are,” she said.

“You’re pretty perfect yourself, min älskare.”

We kissed gently for a bit. I was totally down for our first round of makeup sex, but we were both tired from our days. So instead, we cuddled and went to sleep.

The next day, though, all bets were off.

There were no more run-ins with scary Sookie after that, thankfully. She apologized for her freak out for a long time after, and I told her to stop. I told her it was likely that I’d screw up in the future, to make her feel better, but also because it was probably true. I knew Sookie didn’t think I was a snob or something. I’d actually walked away from that kind of life. I liked to think that we learned from that fight, at least what not to do when we fought. I.e. go berserk on the other person, or walk away completely. I couldn’t judge Sookie for having hang-ups from her relationship with Bill. I certainly had mine.

And I was about to be reminded of them.

xxx

It was a Saturday night, and I was sitting in my office. I heard a knock on the door.

“Come in,” I called. It was one of the waitresses, Belinda.

“Mr. Northman, someone’s looking for you,” she said. “Can you come out?”

I followed Belinda, and she led me to a booth. Sitting there, sipping on a martini, was Nora.

“Hello, Eric,” she said with a smirk. I said nothing. I was too fucking dumbstruck. “Are you going to have a seat?” she asked watching me with her giant blue eyes. I slid into the booth.

“How did you find me?” I finally asked. We hadn’t kept in touch.

“Really, Eric?” she laughed. “You’re not very hard to find. I googled your name and this place came up.” She looked around. “It’s a lovely establishment, really.” She was still smirking at me. I knew Nora, her parents, and our background. Owning a bar was not what we were supposed to do, and with the look Nora was giving me, it was clear that she felt the same way.

“I like it,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you. I thought we could have a drink,” she smiled. I didn’t.

“I’m not thirsty.”

“Come on, Eric. It’s been a long time.” She looked at me. “Please?”

“Nora,” I sighed, “if you came to talk to me about something, please just talk.” I was not big on pleasantries, and I didn’t think Nora was either.

“Fine,” she said. “I miss you, Eric. I’ve missed you for a long time.” She looked at me intently. What the fuck? I tried not to laugh. This wasn’t a conversation she any right to initiate. I stayed silent.

“I know that we’ve had our… difficulties,” she said carefully. “But that was a long time ago. We were always happier together than apart, weren’t we?”

“Jesus Christ, Nora. Seriously? After all the shit that you let happen?” She was unbelievable.

“I told you I was sorry you got hurt, Eric. I still am. You know that I… I just wanted you with me. We always made a great team.”

“Maybe we did. But I’m happy now, Nora. I’m with someone.”

“Really,” she raised her eyebrow. “And is it serious?”

“Yes,” I said simply.

“Here? Really? In the middle of fucking nowhere? Doing this?” She looked around distastefully. “I don’t believe you.”

“That’s your prerogative, Nora. But I’ve changed, in these past five years. I’m sure you have, too.” I hoped to god she wasn’t still the selfish bitch that I realized she was. “But I am happy. And I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”

“For how long, Eric? How long will screwing some bimbo keep you happy? Not very long, I know that much.”

“She’s not a bimbo,” I said, clenching my jaw.

“Right,” she chuckled. “I know your taste, Eric.”

“You knew my taste. And those weren’t girlfriends, Nora, those were girls I fucked when we were on one of our ‘breaks’.”

“Yes, and you always came back to me.” She took a sip of her drink. There was a tense pause.

“Are you still friends with Salome?” I asked. She was playing dirty, so I figured I might as well, too.

“No.” She said quickly. It seemed to be a touchy subject, judging by the way she looked down when she answered.

“Why? She fuck you over?” I asked.

“Eric, I don’t want to talk about this. I am done with them. I wouldn’t come all the way here if I wasn’t.”

“Look, Nora,” I sighed, “I don’t know what else to tell you. This is my life, and I’m happy.”

“We were happy in New York, once.”

“No. Never like this,” I said. It was true. Sookie made me happy in the way I couldn’t remember being, even before Nora’s shitstorm.

“I want to meet her,” Nora said, frowning.

“Excuse me?”

“If you’ve got such a great life here, I want to see it,” she shrugged. Was she fucking kidding me?

“I don’t owe you anything, Nora. I don’t have to prove anything to you. You know that.”

“We grew up together, Eric. We were best friends for twenty years, and lovers for ten of those. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything to you, but it does to me.”

“Oh, so now my well-being means something to you? That’s rich,” I scoffed.

“Jesus Christ, Eric. I just want to see for myself that you’re happy before you cut me out of your life again. Or else I’ll never believe you, and I’ll never stop trying to get you back.” She was issuing me a challenge.

I really had absolutely no desire to introduce Nora to Sookie. I could just tell Nora to get the fuck out. On the other hand, however, tenaciousness had always been one of Nora’s qualities. I knew there was a good chance that Nora would never leave me the fuck alone until I did want she wanted. I took a long moment to think things over.

“I’ll see,” I said. “I’ll see if she’s willing to meet you.”

“You’ve told her about me?” Nora smirked.

“Not much.” Her smile faltered a bit. Good.

“Well, whatever. Call me, if your girlfriend is okay with it. If she doesn’t want to come, we can have dinner, just the two of us,” she said, almost suggestively. She handed me her business card. I didn’t even glance at it, and stuck it in my pocket.

“I have to get back to work.”

“Fine.” She finished off the last of her martini, and we both got out of the booth. “I’ll talk to you later, then.”

“I guess so,” I said.

“Alright. Goodnight, then, Eric.”

“Goodnight, Nora.”

I was glad that she didn’t try to hug me or kiss me. I watched her walk away, trying to figure out if she really just waltzed into my bar. That was real?

I went back into my office, in a bit of a daze. A few minutes later, Pam barged into my office.

“Was that who I think it was?” she demanded.

“Yeah, that was Nora.”

“What the fuck was that bitch doing in my bar?” Pam scowled. Yeah, Pam and Nora had met a few times, and did not get along. Nora seemed rather jealous of our friendship. Pam thought Nora was a “fucking snobby bitch,” which was kind of funny coming from Pam. I told Pam the gist of our conversation, and she glared at me.

“Are you really going to subject Sookie to that, Eric?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I don’t want to, but I kind of believe Nora when she said she wouldn’t let this go.”

“You better not hurt Sookie,” she said seriously.

“I’m not going to hurt Sookie, Pam. Never. You could pay me any amount to get back together with Nora, you know that. I don’t want her back in my life. I… I’m serious about Sookie.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “Whatever. Good fucking luck.” She stomped back out.

I sighed. All I wanted to do was drive over to Sookie’s house, crawl into her bed, and breathe in her scent. It was corny as fuck, but I didn’t think there was much that Sookie’s presence couldn’t fix. Or her cooking, for that matter. I closed my eyes and imagined that Sookie was wearing my favorite little pink nightgown of hers, and it made me smile.

I was struck with a realization, right then. The thoughts that I had been avoiding, despite Pam’s teasing, had reemerged.

I fucking loved Sookie.

SPOV

I knew that since it was a Saturday, Eric would be pretty late coming in. I left my back door unlocked, like I always did, so he could come in whenever he got here. I went to sleep around midnight.

I was woken up just before three, and opened my eyes to see Eric stripping out of his clothes, and climbing into bed beside me. It had become a familiar routine, and I loved it. He wrapped his arms around me, and held me close to him.

“Hi,” I whispered sleepily. Eric didn’t say anything, he just nuzzled into me and inhaled. I liked it when he smelled me, as weird as that sounded. “You okay?” I asked.

“Not really,” he sighed.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” I shifted so that we were looking at each other, but our bodies were still touching.

“I want to talk about it, but it’s late. You’re tired,” he whispered.

“Oh hush,” I replied. “Tell me what’s wrong.” I was awake now. I held his hand, stroking his fingers with mine.

“My ex came into the bar tonight,” he said. I tensed up.

“The one from New York?” I asked. That was the only girl he’d ever mentioned.

“Yeah. Nora,” he confirmed.

“Oh…”

“Yeah. I haven’t seen or spoken to her since I left.”

“Will you… Eric, will you tell me what happened in New York?” I felt that I needed the background information, now that she was suddenly in his life again.

“Okay.” He shifted closer to me and took a deep breath. “Nora was always smart, and really into politics and activism and that kind of thing. I really wasn’t; I’ve always stayed away from that shit. Anyways, I told you she got involved with bad people, right?” I nodded. “Well it was kind of like… a weird political group. I don’t know if was a fucking cult, or an anarchist group, or what. It was led by this guy named Roman and this girl named Salome. And they were all fucking insane, and dangerous, too. Nora and I were broken up for a bit, while she was doing that shit and while I was doing my Masters and stuff. But one day, she came to me, and she… wanted to get back together. I’d missed her, so I agreed. Anyways, she brought me to meet her friends. I found out later that Nora had a particularly close relationship with Salome.” He looked upset thinking about it. “Well, I really hated them, and thought they were dangerous. It turned out that…” he stopped for a moment, and I squeezed him.

“It’s okay Eric,” I whispered, stroking his cheek.

“Well it turned out that they needed money. Nora’s supply had been cut off by her parents. And she knew that I hadn’t been. She tried to get me to join their group, and I flat out refused. I tried to get her out of there,” his voice broke, “but she was… too far gone. When I refused their demands, and told them they were all fucking crazy, I… I pretty much got the shit kicked out of me.”

I was crying, at this point. This girl was supposed to love him, and she got him hurt.

“Nora just watched. There wasn’t much she could do, I know, but…”

“Oh, Eric,” I cried into his chest. He held me to him, and it felt like we were both comforting each other.

“Later, she apologized. But she still thought her actions were justified, somehow, by the politics of it all. Even now, I can tell that while she’s sorry that I was hurt, she still isn’t sorry sorry. She thought she was doing the right thing. So we broke up, because how could I ever trust her again after that? I left for Louisiana with Pam shortly after.”

“How could she do that to you?” I whimpered. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “She betrayed you. I could never, ever…”

“I know you wouldn’t,” he whispered and kissed me. When he pulled away, he was staring at me intently.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I love you,” he said simply. My heart faltered. I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him correctly.

“What?” I whispered.

“After I saw her, I felt so crappy. All I wanted to do was be right here,” he squeezed me. “In this bed, close to you. You just make everything better. I love you, Sookie.”

“I love you, too,” I stroked his cheek and kissed him sweetly. When we pulled away he gave me a gorgeous smile.

“Can I tell you the rest tomorrow?” He asked quietly, his fingers running along my back. “I really, really want to make love to you right now.” I giggled a bit at Eric saying ‘make love,’ and hoped he understood that I wasn’t making fun of him.

“Yeah?” I teased him.

“Mhmm,” he kissed my neck.

“Then make love to me,” I smiled softly, cupping his cheek.

He did. It was gentle and sweet, but in no way boring. I hugged myself to him, and we looked into each other’s eyes as he moved inside of me. We kissed slowly, stroking each other reverently. It was more private and special and intimate than anything I’d ever experienced. I felt so close to him, so connected, and it felt so good that I wanted to cry. I called out his name when I came, and buried my face into his neck. He cried out my name when he came, too. For a moment, I wanted to know what it would feel like for him to come deep inside me, without a condom between us. We stayed tangled up in each other for longer than we usually did, choosing to just stay as close as we could get, with him inside me.

“I don’t want you to move,” I whispered.

“I don’t want to move,” he kissed me. But he did have to get up, to clean himself off. When he came back into bed, he practically pulled me on top of him.

“Can you sleep like this?” He asked, smiling at me.

“I think I can manage it.” I shifted into a more comfortable position. We were as close as we could get.

“Okay. Goodnight, Sookie.”

“Goodnight, Eric. I love you.” I said it with a smile on my face. I couldn’t believe I finally got to say it.

“I love you too, min älskare,” he whispered. I listened to him breathe for a while, and I knew that he fell asleep pretty quickly.

I couldn’t believe it: Eric loved me. It was almost a relief to be able to tell him that I loved him. I had wanted to say it so many times over the passed few months. Especially after our crappy fight in October, when I’d acted like a totally psycho. I still felt guilty about that. I never, ever wanted Eric to think that I didn’t appreciate him, or that I felt like he made me feel bad about myself. Because he didn’t. I’d never felt so good as I did when I was with him. It was really an amalgamation of a horrible week at school and my own insecurities that made me go off like a crazy person.

I snuggled into Eric a bit more, if that was possible. I was afraid that I had blown it, when he walked away and wouldn’t answer his phone. All I had wanted to tell him when I went to his house later that night was that I was sorry, and that I loved him so, so much. But I didn’t want the first time I told him that I loved him to be after a fight. And I was still not sure that I wanted to be the first one to say it.

But I knew that that fight was behind us now. I had promised myself that I would be more conscious about Eric’s feelings, and not just my own. I absolutely refused to let any insecurities ruin what I had with him. I loved him too much.

I knew that he still had more to tell me about Nora, about why she came into the bar today. I would have been nervous, if Eric hadn’t just declared his love for me and we hadn’t just had the most incredible sex ever. I knew that whatever Eric had to tell me, we would be just fine.

I fell asleep listening to Eric breathe with a smile on my face.


	12. The Heart Never Lies

EPOV

I woke up to the feeling of the bed shifting. I opened one eye, and saw that Sookie was climbing back into bed.

“What time is it?” I whispered.

“Eight,” she said, snuggling into my side.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “Why are you awake?”

“I had to pee,” she giggled. I grumbled at her, and she responded by peppering my chest with kisses. I pulled her face to mine, and gave her a deep good-morning kiss, remembering how amazing last night was. I started to shift myself on top of her. I didn’t mind being awake this early if this was what I got to do.

“Wait,” she whispered.

“What?” I asked, kissing her neck.

“I… I wanna take care of you,” she whispered shyly.

“Okay,” I smiled. Sex with Sookie was generally amazing, but I really loved it when she lost her last bit of shyness and took over. I had learned a while back that she’d never given a blowjob before. While I’d never demand her to do something she wasn’t comfortable with, I wanted her to know that she was safe with me. I would gladly teach her anything she wanted to know, and I did. Let’s just say she picked up the skills pretty quickly.

Sookie kissed her way down my body, and stopped to look at me when her mouth was hovering over my hard cock. She never broke eye contact as she took me in her mouth.

“Fuck,” I groaned, threading my fingers through her hair. I was in fucking awe of how her lips looked wrapped around my cock. She was so fucking gorgeous. I held her head gently in my hands, helping her find her rhythm. She was fucking perfection.

“Sookie, I’m gonna cum,” I warned her when I felt my release approach. She took me a bit deeper, and I unloaded in her mouth. She swallowed everything I gave her.

“Fuck, Sookie,” I growled, bringing her face up to mine. “My turn,” I murmured against her lips. It was my turn to kiss my way down her body, until I reached her wet little pussy. I licked and sucked her with fervor, and it wasn’t long before she was cumming in my mouth.

“Eric!” she cried out, her hands in my hair. I crawled back up her body to give her a kiss. “Sweet Lord, you’re good at that,” she giggled.

“So are you,” I kissed her. She kissed me back, before breaking away to cuddle into my side.

“Can we go back to sleep?” She whispered, wearing her cute little post-orgasm smile.

“Fuck yes,” I laughed, squeezing her to me.

“Good,” she yawned.

“Sookie?”

“Mhmm?”

“I love you,” I smiled. I couldn’t believe I’d had the balls to say it last night.

“I love you too,” she whispered sleepily, a glorious smile on her face.

We drifted back to sleep.

When we woke up, it was almost noon. I kissed Sookie on the forehead, before heading to the bathroom. She ended up joining me in the shower, but we surprisingly kept our hands to ourselves. Well, mostly.

We made our way to the kitchen to make ourselves some breakfast. I was in charge of the eggs and bacon, while Sookie took care of her biscuits.

I knew we would have to talk about Nora’s little visit yesterday. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to breaching the topic, because I didn’t really want to have to deal with any unnecessary drama. And in all honesty, that was the only way to think about Nora’s sudden appearance. Luckily Sookie must have been thinking along the same lines as me, because it was her who brought it up.

“So, what happened yesterday?” She asked.

“Well, Nora came into the bar to… talk.”

“To talk?” She raised her eyebrows. I didn’t want to tell her that Nora came back to win me back or something, but she deserved to know everything, especially if we ended going to a horrible dinner with her.

“Yeah, to talk about… us.” I said, hoping that said everything.

“So you haven’t talked to her in all these years, but she came here to get back together?” She asked, confused.

“I know,” I sighed. “It’s fucking ridiculous. I told her that, too.” Sookie looked a bit insecure, so I continued. “I told her that I was happy here, with you. That’d I’d never been so happy.” I smiled and gave her a kiss on the lips.

Our food was ready, so we sat down to eat.

“You told her about me?” She asked, looking surprised.

Yeah, about that.

“I did,” I nodded.

“Like… what did you say?”

“I told her that I was seeing someone, and that it was serious.”

“And that was okay with her? She left?”

“Not quite,” I sighed. Sookie’s eyes widened. “She wants to, um, meet you.”

“What?” She cried.

“Yeah.”

“Why on earth would she want to meet me?” she asked, furrowing her brows. “To scare me away?”

“I don’t know, she’s insane. She said she wants to see for herself that I’m happy, or whatever. Have some kind of dinner together.”

“Jesus Christ, Eric, that’s nuts! And you agreed?”

“No, not exactly. I told her that I had nothing to prove to her, and that I didn’t want to introduce you. She has no right to know anything about me,” I said, and Sookie looked almost relieved. Shit. “But, um…”

“There’s a but?”

“Yeah. She sort of like… threatened to not leave me alone if she didn’t get to meet you,” I groaned. Why was my ex such a fucking whack job?

“What the hell, Eric?” She cried.

“I know, I know. It’s fucking ridiculous. But the thing is, Nora’s always been… relentless? So I kind of believe her.”

Sookie went quiet, and I took that as a very, very bad sign. I got up and kneeled in front of her.

“Sookie?” I asked quietly, resting my hands on her legs. “Sookie, we don’t have to go. I know it’s an awful fucking thing for me to ask of you, I don’t even know why I was considering it.” I couldn’t believe I had even asked. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her. “I’ve dealt with her bullshit before, and I can do it again. Okay?” I cupped her cheek in my hand.

“Eric, I…” She shook her head. “It does sound awful. But at the same time, part of me wonders if… will this give you closure?” She asked quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“Things ended so horribly between you guys.” Yes, they really did. “But I know you’ve known her for a long time…”

“Sookie, that doesn’t matter. She fucking destroyed me. I don’t care how guilty she feels about that. She doesn’t deserve closure.”

“Not for her, Eric, for you.”

“What?”

“I mean… I know it’s horrible to say. But when Bill saw us together, I just felt like this way he knew things were over and that I was okay. If that was a good thing for him, then great, and if it pissed him off, then too bad. And at the same time, knowing that he knew that we were done and that I was happy just made me feel like… like everything, all the hurt and crap, with Bill was really behind me. That I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Maybe… it would be like that for you?”

“I don’t know,” I said. And I really didn’t.

“I don’t mean to rub her face in our relationship,” she said. My Sookie, with the heart of gold. “I just mean… I don’t know.”

I kissed her lips, softly.

“I’ll do it for you,” she said quietly. “If you want me to, I’ll meet her.”

“Really?” I asked, searching her face.

“Really,” she gave me a small smile. “Because I love you.”

“Are you sure?” I couldn’t believe she was willing to do something I had no right to ask of her.

“Yes, Mr. Northman. You’re one thing that I’m sure of.”

I kissed her more passionately.

“I love you,” I smiled. “You’re perfect.” We continued kissing until we were interrupted by the back door opening. It was Amelia.

“Well hey, you two,” she laughed, seeing me kneeling in front of Sookie with her face in my hands.

“Hi, Ames,” Sookie laughed. “Why are you home so early?”

“It’s not early,” Amelia pouted. “And Tray has brunch with his kids today.”

Sookie found it pretty surprising that Amelia was seeing a divorced guy with kids, but she did like him. I’d met Tray, and he was a really cool guy. He seemed pretty capable of managing the hurricane that was Amelia Broadway.

Sookie and I returned to our breakfasts, and Amelia grabbed a plate and joined us.

“So,” Amelia asked, “what’s new with you guys?”

“Well, Eric and I are going to have a pleasantly awkward dinner with his ex, who’s in town,” Sookie said lightly. Amelia’s eyes widened, and I looked over at her. She smirked at me and winked. My little lover was teasing me. She got up to clear her dishes, but I pulled her down onto my lap.

“Don’t tease, Sookie,” I murmured into her neck. She giggled  
.  
“We’ll be fine, honey,” she patted my leg.

“You two are so stinkin’ cute,” Amelia smiled at us, shaking her head. “And I’d say you are good at dealing with exes, after Bill and Merlotte’s.”

That was true. After our little encounter with Bill we hadn’t seen him, or Mrs. Compton, around.

“That’s true,” Sookie agreed. I wrapped my arms around her, and she covered my arms with hers. We were quiet for a moment, and it looked like Amelia was scrutinizing us.

“Oh my God,” Amelia finally said.

“What?” I asked.

“You said it!” She looked at Sookie.

“Said what?” I asked, and Sookie was blushing. Amelia took Sookie’s blush as confirmation, apparently, because she started squealing. Was it a girlfriend thing?

“Ames!” Sookie tried to stop her. It was kind of funny.

We all got up, and Amelia tried to convince Sookie to let her clean up, but Sookie wouldn’t hear of it.

“Fine,” Amelia sighed. “I’ll let you two lovebirds be, then.” She went upstairs.

I chuckled. So that was what she was talking about. 

“Have you been discussing something with Amelia, min älskare?” I smiled at her. Ha, it was my turn to tease her.

“Maybe,” she blushed. I couldn’t exactly judge her for keeping it to herself for a while. I hadn’t been sure about it until last night, and I would have hated hurting her if I wasn’t able to say it back. I just kissed her sweetly.

We cleaned up the kitchen, and made our way back upstairs. I knew I should just call Nora and get it over with. I grabbed the number from my pocket and dialed.

“Yes?” her prim voice answered.

“Nora? It’s Eric.”

“Eric? I’m surprised you’re calling,” she said. I could hear the smile in her voice. I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, well, me and Sookie are okay for dinner.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yep. When do you want to do this?”

“How about tomorrow night? Monday? I have to be back in the city by Wednesday.”

“Hold on,” I covered the phone. “Is tomorrow okay?” I asked Sookie. I knew she had to work. She nodded.

“Monday’s fine,” I said to Nora. “But it won’t be a late night, understand?”

“Yes, Eric.” I could hear the snark in her voice. This was going to be pleasant. “I’ve already picked a restaurant.” She gave me the name of a bar and grill in Shreveport.

“Fine. See you there.”

“Six o’clock,” she reminded me.

“Yes, Nora.” I hung up and looked over at Sookie. She gave me a weak smile. I leaned over and brushed my lips against hers.

“We’ll be fine, right?” I smiled against her lips. It’s what she’d said before, after all.

“Yes,” she breathed. She held my face in her hands and we kissed deeply.

We spent our Sunday afternoon watching movies and, once Amelia left for her shift at Merlotte’s, running up to the bedroom. I couldn’t get enough of her. We had a light supper around seven, and I left around eight.

Sookie pouted at me as I stood at the door. She was wearing a robe, with nothing underneath. I knew this for a fact. Did I really have to go?

“It’s early,” she whined at me.

“I know, lover,” I kissed her lips. “But last week I left late and you were tired at work.” I didn’t have to get up early—she did.

“I know,” she sighed. She pressed her little body up against me, and I groaned.

“Sookie,” I warned. I ran my hands down her body and kissed her neck.

“Mean,” she pouted. She kissed me gently on the lips, and slapped my ass. “Get out of here, Mr. Northman.”

“Yes ma’am,” I chuckled. I walked to my car, and waved to her as I drove away.

I was glad that we had such a good day together, because I assumed that tomorrow would be pretty shitty.

xxx

Sookie had agreed to drive to my place on Monday, and we would drive to the restaurant together. My meeting with Pam and Bruce had gone fine. Pam had harassed me about Nora again, and I promised to give her the details about our dinner tomorrow. She had wished me good luck with an evil look in her eye. Even though I hadn’t told Pam that I loved Sookie, I knew that she knew. She probably knew before I did.

Sookie knocked on my door at around five thirty. I pulled her to me, happy to see her, and kissed her thoroughly.

“Well hello, Mr. Northman,” she laughed.

“Miss Stackhouse,” I nodded. She looked gorgeous, as always. She was wearing a little pink dress with a white ribbon that tied at the waist, with her coat. She was also wearing her high, high heels that made her legs look a million miles long. “You look lovely,” I kissed her lips.

“Thank you,” she smiled.

“You ready to go?” I asked, brushing my fingers along her jaw.

“Yep, let’s go.”

We got in the car, and chatted about our day. She told me about her day at school, and I told her about my meeting with Pam and Bruce.

“Pam didn’t want to come tonight?” Sookie asked.

“No, definitely not,” I chuckled.

“Why not? We’d make a good team,” Sookie smiled.

“Yes, you would. And she loves you. But her and Nora didn’t get along.”

“Oh,” Sookie frowned. “Why not?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Nora was jealous of Pam, I think, because we got along so well. And Pam, well, has no tolerance for bullshit and insincerity. You know Pam,” I chuckled. Sookie nodded and smiled. I grabbed her hand and brought it to my lips.

We walked into the restaurant holding hands. I told the hostess that we were meeting one Nora Gainesborough, and she led us to the table where Nora was sitting, sipping on a glass of red wine. As we approached, she eyed me before flicking her gaze over to Sookie. She stood up to greet us, wearing one of her fake polite smiles. She looked at me expectantly, and I pulled Sookie a bit closer to me.

“Hi, Nora. This is Sookie, my girlfriend,” I said. I assumed that was a good (and clear) enough introduction for her.

“Lovely to meet you, Sookie,” Nora said, the fake smile still on her face.

“You too,” Sookie smiled, much more genuinely. We all sat down, and started glancing through the menu. It was pretty standard food, and I was surprised that Nora hadn’t picked a restaurant that was a little bit more posh.

“So, ‘Sookie’,” Nora started, with her eyes fixed on Sookie, “that’s an interesting name. Is it short for something?”

“No,” Sookie smiled. “It’s not. My mama thought it was cute, I guess.”

“How charming,” Nora replied. I placed my hand on Sookie’s leg, underneath the table, and rubbed gently. I was going to owe her so much after tonight.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Sookie started the conversation again.

“So how are you liking Louisiana?” Sookie asked.

“It’s… lovely,” Nora managed. I tried to hold back a snort. “It mean, I’m enjoying the warmer weather. But I have very specific tastes, and I don’t think that living here would quite satisfy them,” Nora said, obviously directing her words at me. I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, I suppose it’s quite a big change from New York,” Sookie said politely.

“You’ve no idea,” Nora responded, still looking at me.

When the waiter came, I ordered some wine for the table, a kind that Sookie and I liked. I ordered a steak, Sookie ordered the fettuccine alfredo, which made me smile at her, and Nora, after asking the waiter about a thousand questions, finally settled on the filet mignon.

The conversation continued to be painfully awkward, especially when Nora brought up careers. I knew she just wanted to lord hers over us, even though she didn’t know anything about Sookie. She kept a condescending smile on her face when Sookie told her she was a teacher. Nora was a kind of consultant or strategist for a big corporation in New York, which sounded like it made good use of her political savvy, and her love of fucking people over.

“That sounds very interesting,” Sookie said.

“Oh, it is,” Nora raised an eyebrow. “I’ve always loved a challenge, so it’s perfect.”

Sookie glanced at me, looking helpless, and I felt so fucking bad for her that I just wanted to kiss her and leave Nora now. Having to deal with Bill wasn’t seeming so bad, at the moment.

“Excuse me,” Sookie said. “I need to go to the washroom.” I gave her a peck on the lips before she walked away. Nora watched Sookie’s figure retreat.

“Really, Eric?” she asked, once Sookie was out of sight. “Louisiana Barbie?”

“Fuck you,” I growled. “She’s not a fucking Barbie. She’s smart and sweet and gorgeous, and I know you can see that.”

“Jesus, Eric. What kind of future do you have here, with her?”

“A happy one.”

“How?” she snorted. “Working at a bar for the rest of your life?”

“I know that for you, a ‘future’ is fucking money and politics and promotions. But it’s not what I see. Right now, I see owning my bar with Pam. Coming home to Sookie after a long night at work. Having little blonde blue-eyed kids with her.” Nora raised her eyebrow.

“I don’t understand,” she sighed.

“I know, you never did. I love her,” I told her simply. We remained silent until Sookie got back.

“Everything okay, min älskare?” I asked, smiling at her.

“Yep,” she replied, squeezing my knee.

Our food came, and we ate quietly, making polite chitchat, the kind that I detested. The atmosphere was fucking tense, but I didn’t care. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I sighed. I imagined it was Pam, at the bar, who only ever called if it was an emergency. I took it out to check my text messages, and Pam had sent me a couple, asking me to call her ASAP. Fuck.

“Shit,” I muttered. “I have to call Pam.” I didn’t want to leave Sookie alone with Nora, but looking around the restaurant, it would be obnoxious of me to break the peaceful atmosphere by talking on my phone. “I’ll be right back,” I said, kissing Sookie on the cheek. She looked at me with wide blue eyes.

“Okay,” she said.

I went outside to answer, hoping that when I got back inside Sookie would still be okay.

SPOV

Eric walked out of the restaurant to call Pam, leaving me alone with Nora. I wished he’d warned me that she was probably the most beautiful woman, well, ever. She was tall and thin, with perfect porcelain skin and dark brown hair, and clear blue eyes. She had plump lips, and she even had one of those little beauty marks. She was intimidatingly gorgeous, and I tried not to imagine how beautiful of a couple her and Eric would, and did, make. She had a slight accent, almost British, and I wondered why she still had an accent when Eric didn’t. She was obviously not impressed with me, in any way, and didn’t try to hide it in the least.

I wondered if I should take the opportunity to talk to her, woman to woman, but she beat me to it.

“Do you really think this is going to last?” she asked.

“Pardon me?”

“You may be all lovey dovey now, sweetie, but do you really think you’ll keep him? That he won’t get bored?”

“I…”

“I know Eric. I’ve known him forever, so you can believe me when I say that he will get bored here. He needs more than this, do you understand?”

“I don’t think you’re really in the position to say something like that,” I said quietly. “Considering you haven’t spoken in five years, and the way you treated him in the past, I don’t think you know each other as well as you think you do.”

“Excuse me?” She raised here eyebrow at me. “You don’t know anything about my relationship with Eric.”

“Maybe I don’t,” I said. “But then why are you sitting here acting like you know anything about my relationship with Eric?”

“You’re not good enough for him,” she frowned at me. I couldn’t believe she had the nerve to say it so plainly, to my face. A long time ago, I might have believed her. But now, knowing Eric loved me, knowing how I felt when we were together, I knew that she was so, so wrong.

“Why? Because I’m not rich? I didn’t go to a fancy college in New York? Maybe I didn’t. But you know what else? I’ve never betrayed him, and I never, ever could,” I said passionately, starting to get worked up. I imagined my cheeks were flushing.

“How dare you bring that up?”

“Because you need to hear it,” I leaned in. “You know how I know that you won’t make him happy, Nora? Because you love Eric for what you think he is, what you think he could be, not the amazing man that he is. You want him for what he can make you feel, how he can make you look. That’s not love, Nora,” I shook my head. “I know that it’s not love, because someone who treated me like that claimed to love me. And you know what? He betrayed me too. He tried to shape me into his perfect little companion, a reflection of his wealth and vanity, just like you seem determined to force Eric to be someone he doesn’t want to be, that you seem to think he needs to be. His feelings don’t matter to you. I think you’ve made that crystal clear.”

She was staring at me intently, and I wondered if she was going to yell at me or hit me. I wasn’t waiting to find out.

“But,” I continued with a softer tone, “you won’t be happy, either. You won’t be satisfied with him. You can’t live like that, trying to change someone into something they don’t want to be. Using someone else to fulfill your own selfish desires.” I thought of Bill, and his affair with Lorena. I wasn’t enough for Bill, I never had been. And that wasn’t my fault, it was his.

“I just…” she said, looking pretty deflated. “I do want him to be happy. I just… hate that it can’t be with me.”

“If he says he’s happy, then he’s happy,” I shrugged. “Despite what you may think, Eric doesn’t settle. He’s smart and hardworking, and he’s been through a lot of pain in the past. I think you know that much. So I’d believe him, when he says he’s happy.” I hated talking about him when he wasn’t here, but I felt confident in the fact that Eric was happy here with Pam, his bar, and now, me.

She nodded, and we said nothing else. We just ate in silence. Eric came back a few minutes later.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, Pam was freaking out because one of our shipments was late. But I had already talked to the guy, so it’s all good.” He smiled at me.

“Good,” I smiled. He searched my face, probably trying to figure out what had happened while he was gone. I just winked at him, and he looked pretty relieved.

We finished our meals pretty quickly, probably all wanting to leave this awkward dinner as soon as we could. Eric paid for my dinner, which I begrudgingly accepted, but as per usual I left the tip.

We all walked to the parking lot together, and I thought I’d give Nora and Eric a moment to say goodbye to each other in private. I assumed that it would be an almost permanent goodbye, or at least for the foreseeable future. I think Nora had a lot to think about, because she seemed pretty delusional in thinking that her and Eric would somehow end up together. I hoped she’d leave us be.

“I’ll give you guys a minute,” I whispered to Eric, kissing him gently on his lips. Maybe marking my territory, just a little bit. “It was nice to meet you, Nora,” I waved at her. That wasn’t true, but it was the polite thing to say.

“Yes, Sookie, you too.” She gave me a half smile, one that didn’t look nearly as condescending as it had at the beginning of the night. That was a good sign.

Eric had unlocked his car, so I climbed in to the passenger seat. I watched them say their goodbyes. Eric looked stiff, and Nora looked just plain sad. She gave his hand a squeeze before walking away. Eric walked back to the car, and got into the driver’s seat.

“You okay, honey?” I asked him.

He leaned over and gave me a long kiss.

“I am,” he smiled, and placed a kiss on my nose. “Are you?”

“I am,” I smiled back. “That was… interesting.”

“No, that was painful. I can’t believe she acted like that,” he sighed.

“She was jealous,” I shrugged. “She’s not quite sure how I landed you. Sometimes I wonder that myself,” I winked at him. I wasn’t trying to be self-deprecating, but it was true. After Bill, I’d never imagine I could be with someone as sweet, fun, gorgeous, and all around amazing as Eric.

“I think you’ve got that backwards, min älskare,” he smiled at me. He gave me one more kiss before we drove away.

When we pulled up to his house, he turned to me.

“Can you come inside for a bit?” He asked. I looked at the clock. It was just about nine o’clock, so I figured that I had about an hour before I had to leave.

“I think I can do that,” I smiled.

We rushed to his bedroom, stripping off each other’s clothes as quickly as we could. Laying underneath him, skin on skin, I felt so happy that I wanted to melt.

“I love you,” I whispered between kisses.

“I love you,” he replied. “I love you.”

Our lovemaking was fast and intense, with us knowing that we didn’t have a lot of time. I came hard underneath him, clinging to him as I rode the wave of pleasure. After a few more thrusts, Eric had his own release.

After he disposed of the condom, we got at least a few minutes of snuggle time.

“That was a good ending to a crappy night,” I giggled.

“It really was,” he laughed, kissing my neck.

“Is it okay if we talk about it tomorrow?” I asked. I didn’t want to talk about Nora any more for today.

“That’s more than fine, my lover,” he smiled. “But all you really need to know is that I love you, and you’re my future.” He kissed my forehead. I started to tear up, because that was just about the sweetest thing ever.

“Really?” I whimpered.

“Yes,” he chuckled.

“Right back at you,” I snuggled into him as close as I could, dreading the fact that in a few minutes I would have to get dressed and make my way home. At this moment, nothing felt more like home than being here, in Eric’s arms.


	13. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

SPOV

With the Nora dinner behind us, things went much smoother for me and Eric. When we’d talked about what had happened that night, when we were each alone with her, we actually made each other quite happy. Eric seemed proud that I stood up for him, and gave me a big kiss for that. My heart practically exploded when he told me that he told Nora that his future was with me. I allowed myself to see a future where we were together, maybe married, with kids. This was the first Eric had mentioned about maybe wanting those things too. It was early in our relationship, but it was still nice to hear because it was what I knew I wanted.

After the whole Nora debacle, the weeks flew by quickly, and it was suddenly Christmas time. We had all decided that this year I would have Christmas dinner at Gran’s house on Christmas day. Usually it was me, Jason, Amelia, and sometimes Lafayette and Tara if they had nowhere else to go. Often they didn’t, because their family was kind of dysfunctional. This year of course Eric and Pam would be joining us. And since Amelia was spending the night of Christmas Eve at Tray’s apartment, it meant that Eric and I would spend a quiet Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning, together, which I was really looking forward to. Except, I had no clue what to get Eric. I had begged Pam to give me some ideas.

“Please Pam,” I whined, calling her on her cellphone again.

“Christ Sookie, I don’t know!”

“Just one idea? You’ve known him forever! What kind of gifts does he like?”

“I just usually get him clothes,” Pam cackled. “Something designer, that I pick out for him. He’d never have new clothes if I didn’t.”

“I’m not buying him clothes,” I pouted. That seemed like such a generic thing to buy your boyfriend for your first Christmas together.

“Honestly, Sleeping Beauty, it doesn’t matter what you get him. You could give him a big pile of shit and he’d still thank you and give you that stupid puppy dog look,” she teased. I knew that in one sense she was right. Eric, though wealthy, wasn’t a particularly materialistic person. He had pretty much everything he needed. He liked his expensive car and his big screen television, that was true, but other than that he was a pretty simple guy. But I still wanted to get him something he would love!

“Thanks a lot, Pam,” I rolled my eyes.

“Mhm, later Princess.”

“Bye, Pam.”

I was shopping around Shreveport. I’d already bought Jason’s gift, some kind of hunting gear that he’d wanted, and I’d picked up Eric a couple of small things. I’d gotten him a couple of movies he’d mentioned, including Thor, and the most recent season of CSI on DVD. I’d also bought stuff for his stocking, which was kind of a tradition in the Stackhouse family. I still made one for Jason, too. I’d already bough Amelia’s gift. She tended to be easy to buy for, since she actually made a Christmas list, as if she were still a kid. I bought her the scarf and glove set she wanted, and made sure to let Tray know what I got. But I was still missing Eric’s big gift, something meaningful.

I walked around the mall in Shreveport, looking for some inspiration. I walked past the display window of a lingerie boutique, and everything looked so pretty that I decided to go in. I couldn’t give Eric lingerie for Christmas, of course, but I looked around with him in mind. I ended up buying a pretty red silk nightgown with a white lace trim, and a sexy red lace bra and panty set. I could just imagine Pam’s crude comments about Eric being okay with just unwrapping me. My pretty purchases helped me with my disappointment of not finding Eric’s gift—at least a bit.

My moment of inspiration finally came on the second to last day of school before the Christmas break. I was in the teacher’s lounge during the lunch period, when I heard the gym teacher, Coach Beck, mention something about selling hockey tickets. My ears perked up. I’d had a conversation about sports with Eric before. He liked soccer (well football, to him) and he also liked hockey. I didn’t know much about sports, except about (American) football, since I was the sister of Jason Stackhouse. I’d teased Eric about liking all of the cold weathered sports since he was from somewhere cold.

“Do you like the one with the brooms?” I’d smiled at him.

“Curling? No, smart ass,” he chuckled.

I assumed he never really got to go to hockey games. Pam didn’t seem like the type to go with him. Sports and cold didn’t seem like a Pam-approved combination. Dallas wasn’t that far either, for us to drive to see a game. I mean, it was manageable. It could even make a nice little trip!

“When are they for?” I piped up. Coach Beck looked surprised.

“March,” he said. “During our spring break, actually. I can’t go ‘cause the wife’s got knee surgery that week,” he all but pouted.

“Oh no,” I said sincerely. “I hope Barbara’s okay.”

“She’ll be fine,” he shrugged. “You want them tickets?”

“Hold on,” I bit my lip. “Let me make a call.”

I decided I would call Pam to make sure Eric could take a few nights off during that week. I felt bad because I knew Eric had started taking more time off after he met me. It’s not that I thought that Eric needed to ask permission, but I didn’t want to make things harder for Pam.

I called Pam and explained to her what was going on.

“So you’re getting him tickets to a hockey game?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re going with him?” She sounded amused.

“Yes… What is it?”

“Nothing, Sookie,” she chucked. “You’re just adorable, is all.”

“O-okay. So you don’t mind if he takes a few nights off that week, then?”

“No, Sookie. I’m sure I can manage without the Master for a few nights,” she said. I heard the smirk in her voice. “You two will just have to owe me.”

“Okay Pam,” I laughed. “Thanks.”

I bought the tickets from Coach Beck for a pretty reasonable price. I was actually excited. The game was on a Thursday night. I figured maybe we could drive to Dallas on Wednesday and come home Friday afternoon. We’d have ourselves a little trip; maybe spend some time at a nice hotel. Of course first I would have to learn a little bit about hockey, but there was plenty of time for that.

Going home that day I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I told Amelia about my purchase, and she agreed that it seemed like a good idea. She also called me adorable.

“What’s so adorable?” I almost whined, remembering Pam’s teasing.

“Nothing, Sookie,” Ames laughed. I raised an eyebrow. Yeah, right. “It’s just cute that you’re planning a little couple-y trip, that’s all.”

“It doesn’t have to be a couple’s trip,” I frowned. “He could take Jason if he…”

“That’s not what I meant,” she interrupted me. “I don’t mean like in a clingy way. I mean it’s nice that you want to spend time with him, Sook. It’s nice to see you guys like that. I mean, I’m sure it’s kind of a first for the both of you,” she smiled. That was true, I guess. Bill had never been a particularly ‘couple-y’ person. He always liked his privacy more, and his secrets, apparently.

The next few days passed by quickly, and suddenly I was waking up on Christmas Eve. Eric was coming over later that afternoon. I was excited because I hadn’t seen him in the last few days. He hadn’t come over for his usual Saturday to Sunday night sleepover. He’d been extra busy at work because of the holiday rush, and I had lots of stuff to do to get ready for Christmas dinner. We would get to make up for the time lost during this week, anyways.

My baking and cooking was pretty much done, because I would need the oven for the turkey tomorrow. I premade some biscuits and other goodies for tomorrow morning that we would just have to heat up in the morning.

I stepped into the shower with a smile. I’d always loved Christmas, and this year felt like it was going to be a wonderful one. After I was all scrubbed and shampooed, I rubbed on some yummy cinnamon smelling lotion.

I put on my favorite dark wash jeans and a red v-neck sweater, so that I was a little bit Christmas-y. I dried my hair straight, and put some serum in it to make it nice and shiny. I dabbed on a little bit of makeup, and then tried to keep myself busy so that I wasn’t counting the seconds until Eric got here.

It was just after four when he arrived, and I practically ran to the door. When I opened it, Eric was there, holding a cardboard box of gifts.

“Hey there, Santa,” I smiled.

“Mrs. Claus,” he winked at me. I led him to the Christmas tree, where he put down the box. We would arrange everything later.

“The house looks good,” he smiled, looking around. It did. Me and Ames had decorated, like we always did. The tree, too. Her parents had never really celebrated Christmas before, other than giving her a gift or two. But that’s not really celebrating Christmas. So she always really got into it with me.

Eric pulled me into him and kissed my neck.

“You smell good,” he murmured.

“Thanks,” I giggled. “It’s a new lotion.”

“Mmm. Cinnamon,” he said, proceeding to lick my neck.

“Eric!”

“You smell like Christmas,” he breathed.

“Come on,” I pulled away from him. “Let’s get all this sorted out.”

We arranged all his gifts under the tree, and I brought his bag up into my room. When I went back downstairs, I met him in the living room with a beer and a kiss.

“Hi,” I said, giving him a proper greeting. He went for another kiss, and then accepted his beer.

“Thanks,” he smiled. We snuggled up on the couch and talked about our week. “Mine was long,” Eric groaned. “People are extra drunk and extra obnoxious at this time of year. At least they spend more money.” I laughed at that.

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, kids are extra hyper at this time of year. It takes a miracle for them to settle down the week before their Christmas holiday.”

We did a little bit of snuggling and a lot of making out. I put a frozen pizza in the oven, and we had a very un-fancy dinner.

“Can we watch The Grinch?” I begged Eric. It was on TV.

“Really?” he laughed.

“Yes,” I pouted. “The one with Jim Carrey.”

“If you want to. I’ve never seen it.”

“Never?” I gaped at him. He shrugged.

We watched The Grinch and finished our pizza and beer. Eric laughed a lot, and I was glad he enjoyed it. There was a Christmas special marathon playing on the channel, so after The Grinch finished I batted my eyes.

“Can we watch?” I gave him my best sweet smile.

“Yes, Sookie,” he chuckled and kissed the top of my head.

We only got so far, though, before Eric’s hands on me became more interesting than Christmas cartoons.

“Sookie,” he kissed me. “Can we turn off the TV for the night?”

“Yes,” I whimpered.

Eric carried me up to bed, laid on top of me, and kissed me thoroughly.

“Hold that thought,” I whispered, kissing his nose. I grabbed the bag that contained my fancy lingerie and ran to the bathroom.

I figured I’d wear it tonight, since we’d be up late tomorrow night with everyone there, and I’d probably be very, very stuffed. Bloated turkey-and-stuffing belly didn’t seem conducive to sexy lingerie. And at least tonight he’d have time to appreciate it. I put on the bra and panties, then the little nightie, and peeked my head into the bedroom.  
Eric was sitting on the bed, just in his boxers. Mmm. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do… strut? Give, like, a show? Rather than do that, I just emerged from the bathroom, and walked towards him, trying to walk slow but not too slow. I climbed onto the bed, and onto his lap.

“Hi,” I said shyly, my cheeks flaming for the first time in a while. Dammit!

“Hi,” he whispered, his eyes exploring my new outfit. “Are you my Christmas present?” he asked, running his hands over the silk nightie.

“No,” I smiled. “Just a bonus, I guess.” He chuckled.

“Look at you,” he murmured, and the awe I heard in his voice melted my heart. He gave me a long, sweet kiss. “I love you in red.”

“There’s more underneath,” I whispered.

“I’ll get there,” he smiled. We kissed for a long, long while, before his hands finally made their way under the nightie. He slowly lifted it over my head, and the hunger in his eyes, seeing what I was wearing underneath, made me feel so, so sexy. I brought his lips to mine and kissed him hard, putting as much passion as I could into it. He moved us so that I was under him.

“Fuck,” he groaned. “I want you so much.”

“Show me,” I begged him.

And he did. We spent the rest of the night getting lost in each other, no more thoughts of Christmas cartoons on my mind.

I woke up in the morning with a smile on my face, and a man on top of me. A very excited man, going by what I felt pressed against me. The very large man was ravishing my neck with kisses.

“Merry Christmas, Sookie,” he said in a deep, gravelly voice. Mmm, Eric’s morning voice.

“Merry Christmas, Eric,” I giggled. The kissing felt good, obviously, but I was distracted. It was Christmas morning! He kept going, and I tried to get into it, but failed miserably. I giggled again.

“What is it?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Honey, it’s Christmas morning!”

“I know,” he kissed my jaw, “I’m trying to say Merry Christmas.” He nibbled my ear.

“But… presents,” I said. It was the best I could come up with under the circumstances.

He pulled away for a moment and I stuck out my bottom lip.

“Really?” He tried to sound put off, but I could see the smile in his eyes.

“I’ll make it up to you,” I promised. “We’ll have time before Jason gets here.”

“Fine,” he sighed, and rolled off me.

“Thank you,” I laughed, peppering his face in kisses. I jumped out of bed, and threw on a pair of Christmas jammies, ones that covered a little more than last night’s. “I’ll start the coffee!” I called to him as I ran down the stairs.

I put some biscuits and muffins in the oven to heat up, and started the coffee maker. I also made a little plate of Christmas cookies. When Eric came downstairs I was practically vibrating with excitement.

“Here,” I handed him his mug of coffee. He took a long sip.

“Thanks.” He smiled at me. Ha! Grumpy was excited too. I went on my toes and gave him a kiss, then pulled him to the living room. I sat him in front of the tree, and grabbed his stocking from the fireplace.

“Open this first,” I smiled. He looked at it curiously.

“What’s this?” He asked.

“Your stocking.” He looked up at me smiling, if not a little bit confused.

“I didn’t get you one, though,” he hesitated.

“Don’t worry about that, Jason’s got mine.”

Eric tore through his stocking, and chuckled at all the fun odds and ends I’d found him.

“Thank you,” he said, leaning over to kiss me.

“You’re welcome,” I smiled.

“Your turn?”

“One sec,” I got up to go grab the food that was done in the oven. I brought it into the living room, and set it down on the coffee table. “There we go,” I sat down.

We exchanged our smaller gifts, and I’d say that we both did pretty well. Eric had gotten me chocolate, a couple of Romance novels—one of which was about vampires. That one had apparently been recommended by Pam, of all people. He also got me a Food Network cookbook, full of recipes from the shows that I watched, and the first season of a show I had mentioned wanting to start (Supernatural, since the two main actors were cute!)

Then, there were only two gifts left for us to give. I wanted to watch Eric open his, but he placed a box in front of me first. He smiled, be he was nervous as he watched me open it. I unwrapped the medium sized box, and there was a smaller, rectangle box wrapped inside.

“Is there another box in this box?” I teased.

“Sorry,” he smiled, shaking his head.

I unwrapped the small, lightweight package, and then opened the box. My mouth dropped open. Inside was a pretty silver bracelet, decorated with a small heart charm. It was simple but it was stunning. I fought off the instinctual compulsion to wonder how much this gorgeous little thing cost, and focused on how beautiful it was, and that it was exactly my taste. I wanted to put it on and never, ever take it off.

“Sookie?” Eric asked nervously. I hadn’t said anything yet!

“Holy crap,” was what I finally came out with. He searched my face while I gathered my thoughts. “I… I love it, Eric. Oh my god,” I breathed.

“Yeah?” He asked, giving me a sincere smile.

“Yes.” I climbed onto his lap and wrapped my arms around him. “Thank you. I love it. I love you,” I whispered in his ear.

“I love you too,” he chuckled, rubbing my back. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Will you put it on me?” I asked. He nodded, and fastened the bracelet onto my wrist.

“It looks perfect,” he smiled at me.

“It does,” I agreed. “I couldn’t have picked out something more perfect myself.” It was true.

I collected myself enough so that I could hand over the remaining present to Eric. He unwrapped the box with a small smile on his lips. He opened the box and took out the tickets. His eyes lit up when he realized what they were, much to my delight.

“Hockey tickets? This is so cool,” he grinned.

“Yeah?” I asked, the same relief apparent in my voice that had been in his.

“Yeah. And it’s against the LA Kings. You know that they won the Cup this year, right?”

“Now I do,” I laughed. Well if I had somehow made some kind of good choice in games, it was all by luck.

“This is really awesome. You’re coming with me?” He smiled.

“I can. I’m sure Jason would go with you, but I’m not sure he’s as good of a snuggler as I am,” I teased. “I’m taking you on a trip to Dallas,” I promised. “I already called Pam to get you time off.”

“Thank you, min älskare,” he grinned, pulling me to him to give me a kiss.

“You’re welcome,” I smiled, giving him a kiss of my own.

We cleaned up the little bit of garbage we had produced from unwrapping our presents, and set the living room to rights.

“I need to shower before we get started on brunch,” I bit my lip. “But first I kinda need to get dirty. Can you help me with that?” I batted my eyes.

“Hmm,” he pretended to think. “I think I can help you, Miss Stackhouse.”

He scooped me up and brought me to the bedroom, where we took our time getting dirty. We did shower after, which was where I made up for my postponement this morning.

I kept my robe on as I cooked up some brunch. I just made some bacon and eggs, and toast, just to tie us over until our Christmas feast began. We ate with sated smiles on our faces, and I kept glancing down at my new bracelet. I really loved it.

“I’ll clean up. You go get ready,” Eric offered, which was sweet of him.

As I was fixing my hair, the phone ring.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hiya, Sook. Merry Christmas!” It was Jason.

“Hey, Jase. Merry Christmas.” It was odd that he was calling, since I’d be seeing him in a few hours, but whatever.

“Listen, Sook, I forgot to ask you… is it alright if I bring a date with me?”

“You wanna bring a girl to Christmas dinner?” I asked, shocked. This was a first for Jason.

“Yeah. She’s kinda…my, you know, girlfriend.”

“Oh! That’s great, Jase. But… It’s not, um, Dawn is it?” That would make a weird Christmas dinner, that was for sure.

“Naw, Sook, ‘course not. Her name is Crystal.”

“Wow. Okay. Well of course you can bring her, Jase. There’s plenty of food.”

“Thanks, Sook. I can’t wait for you to meet ‘er.”

“Me either. You’ll be over soon?” I asked.

“Yep, I’ll see you in an hour or two.”

We hung up and I was still in shock. Jason had a girlfriend! It was kind of a big deal. Eric came up once he was done, and watched me get ready.

“That was Jason,” I told him. “He wanted to know if his girlfriend could come for dinner,” I laughed.  
“Really?” Eric laughed with me. “Wow. Maybe Jason’s settling down.”

“Maybe,” I smiled. I’d like to see that.

I put on a dark red dress and a black cardigan. I had let my hair dry in soft waves, adding a little bit of hairspray, and put on a little bit of makeup. I looked casual enough, since the guys would all be in jeans. Eric was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a black button up shirt.

Eric hugged me from behind. I was excited for our Christmas dinner, and Eric could tell. The turkey had been in the oven cooking since this morning, and Eric had helped me with the prep. For someone who had never made a Christmas dinner, he was pretty good. It made me all warm and fuzzy to think that it was kind of like we were hosting it, together.

Jason arrived around three, with a small, pretty dark-haired woman beside him.

“Hi!” I greeted them. “Come on in. I’m Sookie.”

“Hi,” Crystal smiled. “It’s nice to meet ‘ya.”

“You too,” I smiled back. She seemed nice.

We all got settled with drinks and sat on the couch. I exchanged stockings and gifts with Jason. He got me some gardening stuff, which made me smile. Jason knew I loved the sun.

We exchanged some small talk until the others arrived. We learned that Crystal’s last name was Norris, and she was from Hotshot. That worried me only a little because of Hotshot’s reputation. But Crystal was polite, so it didn’t make any difference to me.

Pam arrived next, and her and Eric greeted each other with a huge hug and kisses. I got a big hug too.

“Merry Christmas, Pam,” I smiled at her.

“You too, Sleeping Beauty,” she smiled. “Nice bling, too.”

“Thanks,” I blushed.

“Good job there, Northman.” Pam winked at Eric, patting his arm.

“Thanks, Pam,” Eric rolled his eyes. We settled Pam in with a drink and she joined into our conversation.

Lafayette and Tara arrived next, which I assumed would really get the party going. Eric seemed keen on introducing Lafayette and Pam, which I agreed would be funny. The two sassiest people we knew.

Lafayette crushed me in a hug. “Merry Christmas, Sook,” he said.

“Merry Christmas, Lala,” I giggled. He took my wrist when he noticed my new bracelet.

“Damn girl, that’s a fine piece of bling,” he smirked at me. Yeah, maybe him and Pam would get along.

“Thanks Lala, it was a gift from your Viking,” I teased.

“Damn, boyfriend, where’s mine?” Lala walked over to Eric.

I hugged Tara and wished her a merry Christmas.

“You too Sook,” she squeezed me. “Sure smells good in here!”

“Thanks,” I smiled. Tara always appreciated my cooking, and Gran’s too.

Amelia was the last to arrive, and she had Tray in tow. I was glad that he could make it. I really liked him; I thought he was good for Ames. We hugged each other hard. I knew Amelia loved Christmas dinner as much as I did.

Once everyone was settled in the living room with a drink, I knew it was time for me to start in the kitchen.

“I’m gonna go get started with dinner,” I whispered to Eric, before kissing him on the cheek.

“Want me to help?” He asked, bless his heart.

“Nope,” I smiled. “You hang out with Pam, okay?” He nodded and brought me in for a kiss.

I went into the kitchen to get into work, and Tara trailed in behind me. It was kind of our thing, cooking together, and I liked having this time to spend with her. We caught up with each other, and she told me about her on again/off again relationship with JB. I felt bad for her because it sounded like she loved him, but they were having a hard time working things out.

When supper was ready, Ames came in to help us bring the food into the dining room. I’d extended the table to accommodate our group. We all sat down, and Lafayette stood up to make the toast. He was obviously the public speaker of the group.

“Here, here,” he called out, raising his glass. “Alright, y’all. Now, Christmas is a time for family. And I consider you bitches family. I’d like to welcome the new members to our little group. Crystal, who tamed the Jason Stackhouse. Tray, with them broad, broad shoulders,” Lala winked. “Pammy,” I heard Pam scowl when he said that, “you fierce, skinny-ass bitch. And of course, my… I mean Sook’s boyfrien’, Eric.” I looked over at Eric, who was smiling. “I love ya’ll with all of my heart, and I look forward to eating Sook’s, and Adele’s, delicious food, and drink a shit load of booze, with yas. Here’s too us.”

“To us,” we all repeated.

I looked around and smiled, because it really felt like we were a family.

EPOV

I was watching Sookie take in the scene, and she was really glowing. It was obvious that she loved Christmas, and I could see why. Sookie didn’t have a lot of ‘family,’ which was something that her and I shared. But there were a lot of people that she loved, and loved her, that made up her real family, and I felt privileged to be included—and so eloquently, too, by Lafayette.

Sookie’s meal was absolutely delicious. We all ate too much, and then went for seconds. We all helped out on the clean up, and it didn’t take too long.

We all hung out in the living room, exchanging gifts and drinking happily. I exchanged with Pam, who liked her designer scarf. She’d given me a black v-neck sweater.

“Thanks, Pam,” I kissed her on the cheek. It was nice to see her having fun, too. Pam and I weren’t exactly used to having ‘friends’.

Lafayette and Jason were truly the life of the party, and with every drink they had they got even funnier. Crystal was quiet, but I couldn’t really blame her. She seemed nice, though, and Jason seemed to really like her. I liked Tray, and we always had fun together when he was around. I could see him becoming a friend.

Sookie started to drink with Amelia, and she got a lovely little flush in her cheeks. Lucky for me she also got cuddly when she was drunk, which I already knew from the very first night we met. She was constantly touching me or nuzzling into me. She was cute, as always.

By the end of the night, Jason and Lafayette were the most wasted, followed by Amelia, and then Sookie. Luckily each had someone to drive them home. Sookie was a little drunk but still functioning very well, so we said goodbye everyone and then locked up.

“We’ll clean everything up tomorrow,” Sookie smiled at me. I agreed.

We went up to her bedroom and she threw her arms around me.  
“I had fun tonight,” she said, giggling into my chest.

“So did I,” I smiled. I lowered my face to hers and gave her a long kiss. She responded with passion.

“I like that our lives fit together,” she smiled, when she pulled away. “And I like that we fit together.”

“Yeah?” I chuckled at her drunk ramblings.

“Mhmm. And I like you.”

“Yeah? Well I like you too.”

“Good,” she murmured, and kissed me hard.

I moved us onto the bed, where we proved exactly just how fucking well we fit together.

Later, Sookie was sleeping, curled into me. I stroked her soft skin, just watching her sleep. It was kind of amazing how much this tiny woman, who I’d only known for all of six months, meant to me. And how much she’d given me. She’d given me her friendship and her love, but she’d also given me friends, and, as Lala said tonight, family. Sookie had even allowed me to give that to Pam, who until I’d met Sookie, had been my only family.

“I love you,” I whispered, knowing she couldn’t really hear me. Either way, I hoped that my love, and my gratefulness, and all the happiness she’d brought me in these few months, could be conveyed in those words.

She was sleeping, so I knew she wouldn’t respond. But she did shift a little, a little bit closer to me. I kept stroking her back until I fell into a deep sleep.


	14. Two is Better Than One

SPOV

I’d never given the expression ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ very much thought. But apparently, it applied to good relationships too. I don’t know, ‘time flies when you’re in love’? ‘Time flies when it’s spent with sexy Swedes’? Either way, time passed incredibly quickly for me and Eric.

We celebrated our first New Years together, and our first Valentine’s Day, too. Then came March, and our little trip to Dallas. He spent weeks before that teaching me about hockey, and we even watched a few games on the television. It wasn’t particularly appealing to me, except that some of the players were pretty cute and not nearly as bulky as some of the football players I knew of. I learned from Eric that there were some Swedish players in the league, which I teased him about. The live game was fun, and very exciting even though I wasn’t a ‘real’ fan. It felt nice to break out of our routine, too, and do something new, not that I could ever be bored in Eric’s company. The two nights that we spent at the hotel weren’t too shabby, either.

After springtime followed summer, as it always does, and I was looking at the end of the school year. I was excited to having my summer off, which would allow Eric and I to have more similar schedules than I did when I was teaching. All I had to do that summer was a weeklong summer camp at the school in August. Other than that, my summer days, and nights, were wide open.

Suddenly, it was the first of July: my twenty-sixth birthday. It wasn’t exactly a special one, but it would be nice to celebrate it with Eric, and maybe my group of friends. We’d become a pretty close bunch. I was especially happy that Eric had befriended Tray. It turned out that they had a lot in common, since Tray was into cars too. He actually worked at a garage, and knew a lot about the fancy cars that Eric liked. Tray was a little bit older than us, even a few years older than Eric, but he was still fun, and could be incredibly immature with a couple of drinks in him. He was perfect for Ames, and I was glad that Eric had a ‘guy’ friend. He still got along with Jason, but the two of them were, I thought, too different to be ‘best friends’ or anything.

I woke up in the arms of a large man, something that had become a pretty common occurence at this point. We hadn’t really talked about living together, but I wondered how far off that would be. Eric spent a lot of time at my house. Amelia had told me that her and Tray had talked about it, and were actually making preliminary plans for her to move in with him. That would mean, of course, that I would have the house to myself again. Eric and I would have all the alone time we could want. I wondered what he thought about the idea, but I didn’t want to bring it up until Amelia was officially moving out.

I knew Eric was awake when he started shifting around and kissed my shoulder.

“Good morning, birthday girl,” he whispered to me in his sexy morning voice.

“Morning,” I smiled at him.

He shifted on top of me, and I felt his breath on my neck. My heart fluttered, as it often did when Eric touched me like he was. A year later, and his touch still drove me insane. My hands went to his back, and I held him close to me.

“What do you want this morning?” He asked, kissing my neck. “Breakfast? Presents?” He worked his way to my lips. “Or how about a morning orgasm? Or two?”

“What do you think?” I asked, rubbing up against him.

“Hmmm,” he murmured, his hands slipping between my legs. He ran his fingers through my folds. “So wet for me, Sookie. Is this what you want?” One of his fingers entered me and I cried out.

“Eric,” I whimpered. Why was he teasing me on my birthday?

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he chuckled.

He made good on his promise, and gave me two spectacular orgasms.

“Next is breakfast in bed,” he informed me, as we cuddled together. I didn’t want him to leave the bed, but breakfast did sound yummy. “You stay here.” He gave me a kiss on the lips.

“Yes sir,” I smiled. I rolled over to a comfy position and nearly drifted off back to sleep, in my post-coital bliss.

When Eric returned, it was with waffles. I smiled, because he knew it was my favorite. He brought up the waffles, with syrup, chocolate sauce, and strawberries on a little tray.

“Yummy,” I grinned at him.

We both dug in and it was absolutely delicious. I tried my best not to moan, but failed. He waggled his eyebrows at me and I giggled. Once we were both stuffed, Eric brought the little tray back down to the kitchen, and then rejoined me in the bed.

“That was amazing,” I said. I thanked him with a kiss. “Best birthday breakfast ever.”

“Good,” he smiled. “Do you want me to draw you a bath?” He asked, his fingers playing with my hair. “I have to go out to get your gift. You can do that while you wait.”

“I don’t want a bath without you in it,” I pretended to pout. “And why do you have to go out?” I raised an eyebrow.

“You’ll see,” he smirked. “Well I don’t think you’ll want to take a bath after you get your present.”

“Well, let’s have a bath now. I promise I won’t be bored while you’re gone.”

“Okay,” he agreed.

We took our relaxing bubble bath, and we only got a little bit handsy. Eric went out to get my mysterious gift, and while he was gone I spent my time getting myself a little bit dolled up. It was my birthday and I wanted to feel pretty, even if it was spent at home with Eric. I would see everyone else on the fourth of July, and I could have a birthday party/Independence day celebration.

I put on my favorite lotion, and dried my hair straight, even passing my little flat iron over it. I put on a little bit more makeup than I normally wore, which still wasn’t that much. I put on a pretty black and pink floral summer dress that was a bit shorter than my others.

I tidied up my room, and smiled at the little corner where Eric kept his stuff. I liked that he had some of his stuff here.

About forty minutes after he left, I heard the door open.

“Sookie?” He called out.

“Yes?” I called from my room, incase he didn’t want me to see what he had.

“I, uh, need you to come down and sit on the couch. And close your eyes. I’ll be out here, okay?”

“Okay,” I called, laughing.

I practically skipped down the stairs, and sat on the sofa. I was excited. Generally, I enjoyed surprises, especially birthday surprises. I closed my eyes, like Eric told me to do. I heard the door creek open.

“Okay?” He asked me.

“Yep,” I smiled.

I heard him approach, and what sounded like him kneeling in front of me.

“Okay, min älskare. Open your eyes,” he said.

I opened my eyes and gasped. Dwarfed in Eric’s giant hands was a tiny little grey kitten, wearing an adorable little yellow ribbon.

“You got me a kitty?” I cried out, reaching for the tiny little thing.

“Um, yeah,” he grinned. He placed the kitten gently in my arms, and I cuddled it.

“Hello, little baby,” I cooed, and the kitty mewed. I felt my heart melt, and I’d totally fallen in love with the tiny thing.

“It’s a girl,” he smiled at me, and stroked the kitten’s soft fur with his giant finger. “I don’t know if that makes a difference in your naming process.”

“Aw,” I smiled. “My wittle girl,” I said to the kitten. Eric chuckled at my baby talk. “Thank you Eric,” I said sincerely. I felt my eyes water. “This is an amazing present, and kind of unexpected.”

“Good,” he winked at me. “You mentioned missing Bob a few times,” he said. Bob was Amelia’s cat that she brought with her when she first moved in here. Bob was a very weird cat, but I did get attached to him. He had such a little personality, almost like a little man. I missed him when he passed away, and I missed having a pet in the house. I couldn’t believe Eric remembered that.

“Well I was at the bar,” Eric continued, “and Terry Bellefleur was there, oddly enough. He wanted to check it out or something. He’s kind of a weird guy,” Eric chuckled.

I agreed there. Terry was sweet, but strange. That also explained where he had gone today: to pick up my kitty.

“He told me one of his cats was going to have a litter, and wanted to know if you’d be interested. I thought it might make a good surprise,” he shrugged. “I mentioned it to Amelia, and she thought it was a good idea. Plus she still had some, um, cat equipment. Like the litter box? I don’t know. I don’t know much about cats. It’s cute, though,” he smirked.

“She’s adorable,” I hugged her close to me.

“Plus,” Eric looked at me with a glint in his eyes, “Amelia told me that her and Tray had been talking about living together. So she thought it would be nice for you to have some company in the house.”

I leaned over and gave him a sweet kiss.

“You’re kind of amazing, Eric Northman.”

“I’m glad you think so,” he chuckled. He cuddled up beside me, and we both stroked the tiny kitten’s fur.

“I think I’ll name her Tina,” I said out of nowhere.

“Why Tina?”

“I don’t know. She kind of looks like a Tina. No?” I smiled.

“She kind of does,” Eric laughed.

It turned out that Eric had picked out a few other things for Tina. He bought her a water dish and a food dish, and both were really pretty, almost too pretty, and matched my kitchen. I accused him of getting Pam’s help, and he agreed. Apparently she thought that if I had to get a cat, I at least had to get cute things for it.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out together, and playing with Tina. Eric ordered my favorite takeout, and had even gotten me a cake. Best boyfriend ever.

Later that night, as we were laying in bed together, after another round of happy birthday orgasms, I decided to gently broach the topic of us living together as subtly as I could. Test the waters, if you will. Eric had brought up Amelia’s leaving, after all, so I figured it was safe.

“I’m glad you got me some company,” I whispered to him, “for when Amelia’s gone. But you know, that also means that you can keep me company. Any time you want,” I smiled. Not that Ames was in the way, but Eric and I wouldn’t have to plan our sexy sleepovers around her, and she wouldn’t have to plan hers with Tray around me.

“That’s true,” he smiled. “We can run around the house naked.” He waggled his eyebrows. “And I don’t ever have to leave,” he murmured. My heart started pounding in my chest. Was he serious?

“No,” I whispered. “You don’t.”

“I don’t really want to leave,” he said, looking at me intently. We kissed gently until I pulled away.

“Eric?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we really talking about, um, what I think we’re talking about?”

“And what is that?” He asked, pulling me closer to him.

For the first time in a while, I blushed. This would be an incredibly awkward conversation, if he thought we were just bantering, like we often did.

“You know,” I stammered a bit.

“Sookie,” he grinned. “Are we not talking about… finding you a new roommate?”

“Well,” I returned his grin, “I don’t think you’d be a ‘roommate’, really. I mean, Ames didn’t sleep in my bed with me, or anything. And we certainly didn’t spend this much time together naked.”

“That’s good to hear,” he chuckled.

“Would you… would you really live here? With me, in this house?” I asked quietly. Gran’s old farmhouse wasn’t perfect, but it was home. Only in my wildest dreams did I imagine Eric would feel like it was his home, too.

“Yes, I would,” he said, very seriously.

“You… you don’t think it’s too fast?”

“Sookie, all I know is that the nights that I’m forced to spend away from you fucking suck. After spending my nights here, with you, my place feels pretty cold and kind of empty.”

“This house, it’s not to old for you? Or too far from the bar?” I whispered, trying to control the tears that were gathered in my eyes. Stupid sweet boyfriend, making me tear up for the second time today.

“No, min älskare. You love this house,” he brushed my cheek with his fingers. “I’ve come to love this house, too. Because I love you. I would love to live here with you.”

The tears spilled down my cheek, and Eric groaned.

“Don’t cry,” he begged me.

“Sorry,” I sniffed, cuddling into his chest. “It’s your fault, though.” He chuckled. “So we’re really doing this? We’re gonna plan for this?” A small smile lit up his face, and I knew that he was as happy about this as I was.

“Yes,” he said simply, and nothing had ever put a bigger smile on my face.

We spent the next few hours seeing if celebratory orgasms were any better than birthday ones. It was hard to judge, really. They had all been pretty spectacular. It had definitely been a pretty good day for me.

EPOV

The week after Sookie’s birthday, it was sort of our anniversary. It was the anniversary of her drunken night at my bar, and at my house. It hadn’t been our first date, or anything like that, but I had to admit to myself that even then, I knew that there was something about Sookie that was different, or special. There had been a part of me, even if I was in denial, that wanted her to be mine.

I’d thought about taking Sookie out to a nice restaurant for our ‘anniversary’ dinner, but then decided against it. Doing it at her place, soon to be ours, would mean we wouldn’t have to leave little Tina alone. Plus, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to be in public when I gave her the gift I’d gotten.

The gift wasn’t really for her, it was more for us. But still, I wasn’t sure what her reaction would be when she opened it. Better to be at home, I thought.

I was glad that we were talking about moving in together, because it had been something that was on my mind. I’d been spending less and less time at my own place, and in all honesty, Sookie’s place was starting to feel like home. My place was well decorated, and it was modern and new. It was closer to Fantasia, too. But all that stuff didn’t matter; without Sookie, now, my place felt kind of boring. And I would never ask Sookie to move out of a place that meant so much to her. Hopefully, we could make it our own, in some kind of way.

I made sure I had all the fixings to make our dinner before I headed over to Sookie’s. Since it was so nice out, I thought we could barbecue some steaks. Sookie had insisted that we would make the dinner together, since it was our anniversary.

“Hi honey,” Sookie smiled, greeting me with a kiss. She looked lovely, in one of her little dresses. This one was white with a little bit of coral—a color Pam had taught me. Apparently there was a huge difference between orange and coral, and it was insulting to women (Pam) to not know that.

“Hello, my lover. Happy anniversary,” I smiled. Sookie rolled her eyes, because she thought it was weird that I counted the length of our relationship starting from that night.

“Yeah, yeah,” she snorted. “Anniversary of my drunken tomfoolery.”

“Mhmm,” I silenced her with a kiss. “You know that if it wasn’t for your drunken tomfoolery, we wouldn’t be here.”

“I guess not,” she chuckled. “I guess emotional instability comes in handy sometimes.”

I greeted Tina with a little snuggle. I was not normally a cat person, but Tina, for some reason, was okay. She was just so small. I found it entertaining. Pam had teased me endlessly about the fact that I was willingly subjecting myself to living with a cat. There had been lots of “you love Sookie’s pussy” jokes that I had to ignore.

“She missed you,” Sookie teased me.

“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Like she knows who I am.”

“Of course she does,” Sookie smiled. She patted Tina, who was still in my arms. I put the little critter down, and me and Sookie started on dinner.

We talked a bit about our moving-in plans. I had started to contact people about selling my place. There would be a lot of stuff to move over to Sookie’s. Some stuff I had no emotional attachment to, but some, like my big screen television, and maybe my mattress, I simply could not live without. I hoped that we would be living together way before Christmas. It would be nice for Sookie for us to be all settled in by the time she was back at school, I thought.

I gently laid out the suggestion that we use the money I made from selling my house for renovations. The house was in fine condition, but there were some spots where its age showed. I didn’t want to insult Sookie, or make her think I would totally change it, though.

Thankfully she was receptive to the idea. The driveway definitely needed to be redone, as did some of the windows, and maybe even the front door. Sookie had even shyly admitted to me that she wouldn’t mind a few updates in the kitchen. I knew that she had admired mine. Whatever she wanted, I wanted to give it to her.

Our dinner was delicious, as was our dessert. Sookie had made more pie, this time an apple one. She liked to test out recipes on me, apparently. I ate a lot.

It seemed like the time to give her my gift.  
“Sook, sit down for a second,” I said.

“What, why?” She asked, sitting down anyways.

“I have something for you.” I ran up to her room, and grabbed the wrapped box from where I’d stashed it. I handed it to her, and she looked a little bit pouty.

“What? Eric, you shouldn’t have gotten me anything.”

“Well, it’s not only for you,” I said. “It’s, um, kind of for us.”

“Um,” she looked at me, he cheeks beginning to flush. “Is it something dirty?”

“No,” I laughed. “Just open it.”

“Okay, it’s just that you seem nervous.”

“I am. Please open it, Sookie.”

She opened the gift very neatly and slowly. The anticipation was killing me; I was freaking the fuck out over how she was going to react. Finally she got to the contents of her box, and her eyes went wide.

“Holy… Eric!” She gasped. “Are these… are these plane tickets?” She asked, looking at them in shock.

“Yeah, they are,” I said. She seemed frozen. “Plane tickets to Sweden.” She was still quiet, so I continued to explain. “I… I haven’t been home in a while, and I… I want you to come with me. We can see my family home, and maybe even visit some of my relatives.”

“Really?” she asked in a small voice, but she looked almost hopeful.

“Really,” I smiled, touching her face. “I thought we could go during your Christmas break. We could leave the 27th, so we’d still have Christmas here. It would solve any problems New Years,” I grinned. There had been some debate over where to celebrate New Years last year, Merlotte’s or Fantasia. “We would have a little bit over a week,” I said.

“That… that sounds amazing,” she said. Her eyes were all watery, and I knew that she was about to cry.

“Please,” I begged her. “Sookie don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it,” she shook her head. “I… it means so much to me that you want to share this with me,” she said. “Even if it’s crazy expensive.” I chuckled at that.

“It’s worth it, Sookie. Trust me.”

“I know it will be,” she smiled. “It’s going to be so much fun.” She was almost bouncy with excitement, and I felt proud that I could do something like this for her.

We spent the rest of the night talking about our future. Sookie questioned me relentlessly about our trip, and Sweden, which made me happy. I’d been afraid that she would think I’d been too highhanded, or extravagant. But showing Sookie the world, or at least my homeland, was something that I wanted to do.

When we went to bed late that night, with a little kitty purring softly between us, I felt like I had a lot to look forward to.

xxx

The summer months flew by quickly. Once Amelia announced that she was officially moving in with Tray, we started our own moving process. I was settled in by the end of September. I thought we’d adjusted quite well to living together, though it had taken some shifts. I’d had a serious talk with Pam about working more ‘regular’ hours, which meant that I’d be at least cutting down my hours on Saturdays, and maybe even Friday nights. Pam understood that our hours, while conducive to a single socialite lifestyle, didn’t exactly work for me when I was living with a schoolteacher, and actually wanted to see said schoolteacher. I’d have to be less ‘hands on’ now, but I think it was something Pam was expecting, anyway.

I was unsuccessful at ignoring another birthday, since Sookie managed to convince me to let her throw me a small get together. She could pretty much get me to do anything she wanted, just by giving me those fucking doe eyes. She complained that I was allowed to spoil her, but wouldn’t let her spoil me. I’d had fun in the end, though. I always did, with Sookie.

Christmas came, and we had a good time of giving each other things we would need for our trip as gifts. I made sure to get her a coat that I deemed warm enough for the weather, since Sookie really didn’t have any idea of what it was going to be like. We were both excited. I was nervous, thinking about going home for the first time in three years. But I was looking forward to showing Sookie.

I had called my aunt, my Mom’s sister, to tell her that I was coming to visit. First she scolded me, asking me why it had taken so long. She was happy though, and excited to see me. When she asked me if I was coming alone, I hesitantly told her I was bringing Sookie with me. She squealed, like my mother probably would have, at the idea of me bringing my ‘little girlfriend’ to visit.

Suddenly, Christmas was over, and we were boarding a plane to Sweden. Sookie looked excitedly at our surroundings, since she had never been on a plane before. I was watching her, how adorable she looked with such anticipation in her eyes. I was excited for everything to fall into place.


	15. We'll Be A Dream

SPOV

I held onto Eric’s hand tightly as the plane was taking off. I knew logically, that we were pretty safe, but since I’d never been on a plane before, I was still nervous. And excited. Nervous and excited pretty much summed up my feelings about the entire trip, really. I was nervous because I was meeting part of Eric’s family, whatever he had left of it, and of course I wanted them to like me. I was excited to see his home, where he grew up, for him to share a piece of himself that was not easy for him to share.

“You good?” he smiled down at me.

“Yep,” I smiled back. He squeezed my hand.

Our flight definitely wasn’t short, and we had to stop in London before making our way to Stockholm. It didn’t bother me, though. I wouldn’t be bored; the whole plane-travel thing was new to me, plus I had brought a good Romance in my carry-on bag. And Eric was with me, of course, to distract me when I got too freaked out.

Eric’s aunt Elin had offered to pick us up at the airport. She was absolutely thrilled when Eric had called her to tell him he was coming to Sweden, and bringing his girlfriend along. Eric kindly declined her offer, saying that he would rather rent a car, so that we weren’t dependent on anyone incase there was somewhere we wanted to go. But Elin did make all the arrangements to open up Eric’s childhood home. I supposed she had the electricity turned on and such. I marveled that Eric’s family inheritance included a home that wasn’t even in use. Eric often hid it well, but I knew that a part of him was sentimental. He didn’t want to let strangers live in his home. When I thought about it, I wouldn’t let strangers live in Gran’s house, either.

“Welcome to Sweden, Sookie,” Eric grinned down at me as we made our way through the airport. I was smiling at the foreign language that graced the signs—foreign to me, of course.

I didn’t think that my Southern sensibilities were really prepared for the cold that we met when we stepped outside of the airport towards the rental car. It was a good thing that Eric had helped me bundle up. His big hand grabbed my small, mitten-covered one and he smiled.

“Still okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I smiled up at him. “The cold is just, you know, different.”

“I would say that’s accurate,” he laughed.

As we drove, I couldn’t take my eyes off the sights through the window. The city was so lovely, like nothing I’d ever seen. The snow made everything look even prettier.

“Wow,” I breathed, turning to look at Eric for the first time since we’d left the parking lot.

“You like?”

“It’s beautiful, Eric,” I replied. For someone from a small town, who had never even left America before, it was really something.

Eric’s neighborhood was, according to him, more suburban, but it still looked pretty city-like to me. We pulled into the driveway, and I took in Eric’s childhood home. It wasn’t as big as I’d imagined in my head (I was imagining some sort of mansion), but then again they’d only been three people living there. We got out of the car and got our bags, then made our way into the house.

The inside was gorgeous. It was tastefully decorated, and very modern, and it was clearly the home of someone of wealth. We took off our coats and scarves, and Eric hung them up.

There was a note left on a little table in the foyer. I glanced at it, and it was clearly written in Swedish.

“Someone left you a note,” I said to Eric, when he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. He picked it up.

“It’s from Elin, my aunt,” he told me.

“What’s it say?”

“To Eric, and his lovely lady,” Eric translated out loud. I blushed. “I hope you had a good flight, and Eric, I hope that you will call me once you get home, so I know that you made it safely. I am excited to see you. Love Elin.“

“Aw,” I smiled. “That’s so sweet.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty excited to see me, I guess. And meet you.” He gave me a kiss on the top of my head. “I’m just going to give her a call,” he said, pulling out his cellphone from the pocket of his jeans. “Make yourself at home.”

Eric walked down a hallway, and I listened to the distant sounds of him speaking Swedish to his aunt. I went into the living room and looked around. There were only a few photographs. One was of Eric and his mother, and it couldn’t have been taken too long before she died. Another one was quite familiar; it was the photograph Eric had in his old place, the one of him when he was a little boy. I smiled; that picture now hung on the living room in our house.

I couldn’t hear Eric talking anymore, so I figured he was done on the phone.

“Eric?” I called, walking down the hall.

“In here,” he called back.

He was sitting on a big, comfy-looking bed. He had brought our bags into that bedroom.

“And what room is this?” I asked.

“My old bedroom,” he grinned. “It’s actually the master bedroom, since my parents gave me the biggest room. Well, my Mom did,” he laughed.

“Spoiled boy,” I teased, sitting down beside him. I looked around; I assumed it had been redecorated since Eric had moved out. There weren’t really any personal items in it.

Eric lay down on the bed, and I followed suit. I practically moaned, the bed was so comfortable.

“Oh my God,” I sighed.

“I know, it’s amazing,” Eric laughed. He pulled me closer and gave me a sweet kiss. “But how does a shower sound?”

“Like heaven! I finally get that whole ‘airplane smell’ thing. People always say that in the movies.”

I promptly learned that Eric’s shower was much bigger than Gran’s, and much more suited to his height. Which, of course, meant that it was also well suited for dirty, fun things.

***

Driving over to Eric’s aunt Elin’s house, I was feeling a little bit nervous. I was technically meeting a member of Eric’s family for the first time.

“Aunt Elin will love you,” he assured me. “She’s going to be so happy that I’m with someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” I asked. What did that mean?

“Yes. Someone sweet, kind, smart. And gorgeous,” he winked.

“Uh-huh,” I laughed. “Did she think you wouldn’t?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I think she knew some, um, not so nice people that my Dad met through business, and they had some not so nice kids. I guess there was a chance that I could have ended up with someone like that.” I nodded. That made sense. Eric’s Aunt Elin was his Mom’s sister, and I got the idea that she wasn’t always so fond of his father and his ‘people’. Eric had told me that a lot of his father’s business friends were assholes, and that had caused tension within the family.

We pulled up to a house that was smaller than Eric’s, but every bit as lovely.

“Ready?” He asked as we got out of the car.

“I am,” I said, grabbing his hand. “Are you?”

“Let’s hope,” he chuckled. I stared at him, wondering how he was feeling, seeing his family after a few years of nothing.

Eric barely got the chance to ring the doorbell before a tall, pretty blonde woman opened the door .

“Eric!” she cried, and wrapped her arms around him. When she pulled away, she had a brilliant smile on her face. “You must be Sookie,” she said. I was relieved that she was speaking in English. “Come in, come in,” she pulled Eric into the house, and I followed.

Once we were in, Eric gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“It’s good to see you, Aunt Elin,” Eric said.

“Yes it is,” she smiled. “It’s been far too long. At least you brought this lovely girl with you,” she said, looking at me. She pulled me into a hug, to my surprise.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I smiled after she pulled away.

“Oh,” she gasped, “you are adorable.” I flushed, and Eric chuckled.

“Follow me,” Elin said. “Eric, your cousin is here, and her husband. You have to meet the new baby.” Elin had a cute little accent, but her English was fantastic.

Eric introduced me to his cousin Lina and her husband Jan. Their English wasn’t as good as Eric’s, or as Elin’s, but good enough that we could all chat together. Eric and I also met their six month old baby girl, Sara. She was too precious.

“She’s just so sweet,” I cooed when it was my turn to hold her. She had the prettiest blue eyes I’d ever seen on a baby, and a shock of blonde hair.

“Isn’t she?” Elin smiled. She was such a proud Grandma; it was adorable.

Eric was smiling too, but there was an intense look in his eyes as he watched me pass little Sara back to her Mama.

“You okay?” I asked softly.

“What? Yeah,” he snapped out of his trance, and gave me a grin.

We had a lovely dinner. I was sort of relieved that Eric’s family was so welcoming and, well, normal. Not that I thought they’d be rude or snobbish, but I knew that Eric didn’t always have an easy relationship with his parents, so I’d assumed that would affect his relationship with his extended family too. It was obvious how happy Elin was to have Eric there; he was her nephew, and a piece of the sister she’d lost. She was also a very warm person, and Eric had told me his mother was a lot like her sister. I wished I could meet her.

After dinner, Eric and Jan took the baby on the couch to watch some sports, and I stayed with Elin and Lina in kitchen. We sipped on tea, ate some cookies, and chatted.

“Sookie, I am so glad that you are here,” Elin patted me on the arm. “Here in Sweden, but also here in Eric’s life. He just seems so happy,” she gushed.

“Thank you,” I smiled. “He makes me happy, too.”

“That’s lovely,” she almost sighed. “The last few times I have seen Eric, he has not been happy. Even before his father’s death, or my sister’s… he was not content, as he is now. He just seems so… light.”

I felt my heart warm. I assumed Eric was happy with me, but hearing it from Elin just sounded so significant.

“I’m glad,” I said.

Elin excused herself for a moment, and I heard her talking in Swedish with Eric and Jan. I turned to Lina and she asked me a few questions about America.

Eric and I made our way back to his place and made love for hours. I assumed Eric’s mood had something to do with the happiness of seeing his family again after so long, because he was almost reverential.

“I love you, Sookie,” he murmured as we dozed off.

“Love you too,” I whispered back, before I was out for the night.

During the few days leading up to New Years, Eric showed me some of the local tourist spots, and some of his own favorite spots. It was nice, seeing Eric revisit some of his favorite memories. I sent Amelia a postcard, even though I knew she wouldn’t get it before I got back. She would be excited to find it in the mail anyway. I made sure to pick her and Tray up a little souvenir, as a present for babysitting Tina.

Eric had taught me how to say a few things in Swedish, like please and thank you, and hello and goodbye. He had wiggled his eyebrows after I had thanked our server in Swedish.

“It’s sexy,” he had told me.

“Then you’ll have to teach me more,” I blushed.

Eric asked me if it would be okay if we spent New Years Eve at his favourite bar in the city. He assured me it wasn’t too big, though it would be pretty packed. I, of course, agreed. It didn’t matter to me where we went, as long as we were together. It would be nice just being the two of us. Last New Years Eve there had been drama about where to go, Merlotte’s or Fantasia, and so we had ended up making appearances at both parties. It would be nice this year to spend a snowy New Years Eve together. The house had a fireplace, which I found promising for when we got back to his place.

“Since we’re going out to your favourite place, do you think we could stay up to watch the New Years Eve count down in New York?” I asked, batting my eyelashes.

“That will be at like, six in the morning,” Eric chuckled.

“We can make it,” I teased. “Plus we’re only going to your aunt’s house later on anyways.”

“Whatever you want,” he agreed, and kissed my hair.

We slept in pretty late, spending our morning cuddling and dozing, and maybe fooling around a little bit too. We took a walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon. Eric obviously loved the snowy weather, and I was happy just watching him. We had a late lunch at his favorite Café.

“I have a few errands to do,” he told me as we were walking back to the house. “Groceries for supper tonight,” he explained. “You want to just soak in the tub for a bit? I won’t take long.”

“Sure,” I smiled. The snow was pretty, but I wasn’t quite used to venturing out in it just yet.

I took a long, hot bubble bath. I brought my book in with me and read a few chapters, too. I wondered longingly if they made these kinds of bathtubs in America. When the water finally got cold, I reluctantly got out, and went to pretty myself up a bit.

I started with my favorite smelling lotion. Then I put on a sexy new lingerie set that I had bought for our trip. It was pink and lacy, and I knew that Eric would love it. I put on my tightest black jeans, and a pretty burgundy floral wrap top. I slapped on a little bit of shimmery makeup, and some pink lip-gloss. I took my curling iron to my hair to fix up the waves that my hair had naturally made.

When I was ready, Eric still wasn’t back yet, so I went on his computer so that I could send out a few e-mails. I was just finishing up an e-mail to Jason when I heard him come in.

“Well hello,” I said, helping him with his bags.

“Hi there. Don’t you look gorgeous,” he said, looking me up and down. He shrugged out of his jacket and hung it up before giving me a kiss. I brushed my fingers along his cheeks; they were flushed from the cold.

Eric let me unpack the groceries while he took a quick shower. When he came back, he seemed a little bit jittery.

“You okay over there, honey?” I teased him.

“I’m fine,” he grinned.

“Okay,” I laughed. “Tomorrow you should probably stick with decaf.” He chuckled.

I wasn’t quite sure what Eric was making me for dinner, but I did know that he had bought everything at a market his mother had apparently loved. There was pasta and a yummy sauce, and some kind of meat. I figured I was better off not knowing what kind it was. He had also bought a really delicious white wine, which we were sipping on.

“That was some meal, Mr. Northman,” I said, as I patted my full belly after finishing the last bite on my plate.

“I’m glad you liked it,” he said, giving me a small smile. There was something in his eyes…

“You seem excited to go out,” I laughed.

“A bit,” he told me. “We won’t stay out too late, though. I do want my time with you. We’ll be out tomorrow to see everyone. This is our vacation, and I want us to relax,” he reminded me.

“Alrighty then,” I laughed. “We won’t party too hard, then.”

We cleared the table and loaded the plates into the dishwasher. We got our coats and scarves on and made our way to the bar. It was fun, just talking the two of us. We made our predictions about all the wild stuff that would probably happen at Fantasia and Merlotte’s tonight. I predicted that Jason would be the worst. He and Crystal were a kind of on again/off again couple, and right now they were off. I imagined he would make the most of that. I imagined that Lafayette and Pam would get into some crazy stuff, too.

I had a couple of gin and tonics, and Eric had a few beers. He also had a shot of some unidentified alcohol when it was offered to him by a very friendly patron. I liked how friendly everyone seemed. It wasn’t a small town like Bon Temps, of course, but people did seem pretty nice. People were delighted when they found out that Eric was back ‘home’.

Eric and I held hands as everyone began to count down, in Swedish. I realized I should have asked Eric to teach me numbers, so at least I could count along! Eric helped me out, though, since he counted with me in English. We shared a sweet kiss when the New Year arrived. We stayed for another hour or so, drinking and laughing and just enjoying each other’s company in this place that Eric seemed to love so much.

Eventually we made it back to his place.

“Want to take a nap?” Eric asked hopefully.

“Sure. In front of the fireplace?” I asked, and Eric waggled his eyebrows, thus answering my question. Eric set his phone for 5 o’clock, to give us time to wake up a bit, and watch the performances that were likely going to be broadcasted. We snuggled up on his too-comfortable couch, and fell asleep pretty quickly. I woke up to the beeping of Eric’s phone. I kissed his cheek to try to rouse him.

“Wake u-up,” I sang softly.

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled. He gave me a kiss on the forehead, and then got up. We both went our separate ways, him towards the kitchen and me towards the bathroom. We met back at the couch, where Eric had brought coffee and some of the delicious pastries he had picked up yesterday.

“Thank you,” I smiled at him. We found the channel on the television, and snuggled up again. I could get used to this!

“So, what’s your New Years resolution?” I asked Eric. “I forgot to ask before.”

“Hmm…” he took a moment to think. “I think, to put my family first,” he finally said.

“Aw,” I smiled. “That’s sweet. Does that mean you’re going to try and come here more often?” I asked.

“Maybe,” he said cryptically. “What about you? What’s yours?”

“I don’t know,” I said. Last year I had said I would try to exercise more. Eric had had a few ideas about how I could do that. I giggled just thinking about it. “Maybe… to be more adventurous?” Eric raised an eyebrow at that. “Well I don’t mean that I want to, like, start mountain-climbing or something. Just, maybe, do more stuff like this,” I blushed. He nodded his head in understanding.

We watched the broadcast from New York. I loved watching it every year. There were always tons of celebrity appearances and musical performances, and I loved to watch the ball drop.

“New York looks so amazing,” I said, watching the festivities.

“It can be pretty cool,” Eric nodded. “We could go next New Years, if you want,” he said, pulling me closer to him.

“You’re sweet,” I smiled. “And it would be pretty neat. But I don’t think I could handle that much crazy. It looks insane!”

“Then we won’t go for New Years.”

“Already trying to help me make good on my resolution, huh Northman?” I laughed.

“You know it,” he kissed my hair.

When it was only a minute until midnight, well in New York City, and I edged closer to the television. It was so exciting! Even if it was technically New Years Day for me already.

“This is it!” I said, looking over at Eric. He was staring at me, amused, but I was too excited to care.

Ten!

Nine!

Eight!

Seven!

Six!

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

“Happy New Year!” I shouted with the crowd, at the same time the explosion of music and confetti happened on the television. I grabbed Eric’s face and gave him a good, long kiss.

I expected him to pull me into a hug or something, but instead he got down onto the floor in front of me.

“Eric?” I was confused.

He pulled a little black box out of his pocket. He was on one knee. Cheese and rice! Was he…

“Eric?” I asked again.

“Sookie,” he said, sounding nervous. “I wasn’t kidding when I said that this year, family comes first. Which is why I want the first thing that I do this year to be to tell you that I love you, so much. More than I ever thought possible. You’re already my family, Sookie, but I want to know if you’ll be my wife?”

He opened the little box and I gasped. The ring was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I almost felt dizzy.

“Will you marry me, Sookie?” He asked quietly.

“Oh my God,” I sputtered. “Eric, I… of course! Of course! Yes!”

He gently took my hand, and slid the ring onto my finger.

“Is this for real?” I whimpered, looking into his eyes.

“Yes, my lover,” Eric chuckled. “It’s for real.” He kissed my hand.

I promptly tackled him to the floor and smothered his face with kisses.

 

EPOV

I laughed as Sookie landed on top of me, and attacked me with kisses. I felt euphoric, higher than a fucking kite.

“I love you so much, Eric,” she murmured between kisses. “And I have a lot of questions,” she looked into my eyes, her own eyes sparkling. “But right now I don’t really want to talk.”

That was fine with me.

I rolled us over so that she was underneath me. I kissed her deeply, pouring every ounce of love I had for her into it. She responded in kind, and we were both left breathless when we pulled apart. I unwrapped her pretty little top, and smiled at what I found underneath. Her perfect breasts were covered in pink lace.

“This is new,” I murmured into her cleavage as I licked and kissed her breasts.

“Mhmm,” she moaned.

I smirked as I lowered her jeans, because when I did I found matching pink panties. She was so fucking sexy, lying there in her pink panties, her eyes filled with lust. And love.

And she had agreed to be mine.

Sookie grabbed at my shirt and pulled it over my head, then yanked at my jeans.

“In a rush, are we?” I teased her.

“Hush,” she pouted, and I nipped at her lips.

We stripped each other of our remaining clothes. I was sad to see the pink lace go, but I liked what was underneath it even better. We kissed and caressed each other for a long while. Eventually I moved to bring my face between her soft thighs, intent on using my mouth to make her scream my name. I knew how much she loved it. She stopped me, though, and brought my lips to hers.

“Later,” she whispered. “Right now, I just want you inside me, okay?”

I answered her with a kiss, as I slipped my fingers between her legs to test her wetness. She was more than ready for me. Sookie was clinging to me as I pushed into her slowly. She felt so fucking good, and nothing had ever felt so intimate, as I made love to her in front of the fireplace, in my childhood home. I drove deeper, and reveled in her sweet little whimpers. I knew she was close to coming, and I could feel her start to clamp down around my cock. I circled her clit with my thumb, and she fell over the edge.

“Eric!” she cried out, and I didn’t think I’d ever heard anything so fucking sweet. The feel of her coming around my cock, her smell, the pure joy I felt in that moment, it was all enough to bring me to my own release. My face was pressed into her neck as I came inside her.

We laid there for a few minutes, stroking each other softly as we calmed down. I kissed her neck, her face, her lips. Eventually, though, I did have to get up to get us a cloth. I cleaned myself, and then Sookie. I pulled a big, fluffy blanket over us, and we snuggled up in front of the fireplace. It was far more comfortable than it should have been.

“Wow,” Sookie finally said.

“Yeah,” I laughed, pressing a kiss into her hair.

“Eric?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re engaged,” she said, as if I didn’t know.

“Yes, we are,” I laughed.

“How on earth did you get a ring through security?” she asked, gazing lovingly at the ring on her finger. It looked perfect there.

“I didn’t,” I replied. She looked up at me. “The ring is my mother’s. Well, the Northman family ring that my father gave my mother,” I explained. “My Aunt Elin had it.”

“Oh. Then how does it fit so perfectly?”

“We got it sized. I had sent Aunt Elin the size, and had her drop it off at the jeweler, and I picked it up today.”

“She knew?!” Sookie asked with wide eyes.

“Yes, she did,” I chuckled.

“I really love it, Eric,” she whispered, her eyes glassy with tears.

“Good,” I kissed her.

After another short nap we got up to have brunch, and more importantly, some dessert. I bought a chocolate cake from a really great little bakery, and I knew Sookie would love it. We made our way back to the bedroom, where we spent most of the afternoon not sleeping.

***

For a late dinner on New Years Day, we went over to Aunt Elin’s. She greeted us with big hugs, and practically tore off Sookie’s mitten so that she could see the ring.

“Oh I’m so happy!” Aunt Elin cried. “Your mother would be so proud.” She squeezed me in a tight hug, and I kissed her cheek.

“I know she would,” I smiled over at Sookie. She was smiling, and looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Aunt Elin’s house was full of guests, most of them distant relatives and familiar friends of the family. It was nice reacquainting myself with them, and it was even nicer introducing Sookie as my fiancé. Not all of them spoke very good English, but I think Sookie was too happy to care. My aunt eventually got out the champagne, and we all raised our glasses.

“To Eric and Sookie,” she smiled. “I am so glad that you found each other, and I hope that you will come visit us. We love you! Cheers!”

Sookie blushed, still not fond of being the center of attention. I hugged her close to me.

Sookie went to sit with my cousin Lina and the baby, and I stood in the doorway between the dining room and the living room watching them. Seeing Sookie with a baby was a sweet sight. I knew I couldn’t get ahead of myself, but I was excited to have kids with Sookie. She was going to be an amazing mother. Aunt Elin came to stand beside me, and patted me on the arm.

“I am very happy for you, Eric. She’s beautiful,” she said. I smiled. She was; Sookie was practically glowing.

“Thanks.”

“I’m glad you finally came home to see us,” she said quietly.

“I’m sorry it took so long for me to come,” I replied.

“I understand, Eric. I know you have many sad memories here. I also know, though, that you have many good ones here. And now you have someone to share that with,” she smiled.

It was true. Having Sookie with me to face my past, face my demons, made all the difference. And now I certainly had a new memory to cling to— Sookie’s face when she said yes.

“I do. I promise we’ll come more often,” I said. I hoped we could visit once a year.

“Good. You’re always welcome, and we’ll always be happy to have you back home,” she smiled, before turning back into the kitchen.

I appreciated my Aunt’s sentiment, and I knew that Sweden would always be my home in a nostalgic way, but I knew that in reality Sookie was my home. And we had a whole new life in front of us, a whole new life to build. I couldn’t wait to get back to our friends, to our cat, to our farmhouse, to our bed, so that we could start building that life.

As long as it was with her, it would be a good one.


	16. Epilogue

SPOV

I walked through the familiar black doors with a smile on my face. I was looking forward to surprising my husband. The bouncer, Rasul, gave me a smile and a wave, so I went over to say hello.

“Have you come to cheer up the old man?” he asked me.

“Something like that,” I laughed.

It was a Saturday night that Eric was supposed to have off. The bartender, Clancy, had called in sick, and the other bartender wasn’t answering his phone, so Eric had been called to go fill in for him. Saturdays were busy, after all. Eric wasn’t happy that he had to go in, to say the least. I wasn’t happy either. I had asked Eric to take tonight off, because I had a surprise planned for him. I had wanted to cook him a nice dinner, and spend the evening together, and I was always too tired Friday nights, so I had planned for Saturday.

See, Eric and I were trying to have a baby.

Eric had proposed in January, and we had ended up getting married in August. It wasn’t a particularly long engagement, but that was fine with me. I didn’t want a very fancy wedding; I’d always hoped to have a pretty outdoor wedding in Gran’s backyard. And because I was marrying the sweetest man in the world, he agreed that it sounded perfect. Lucky for us, we were friends with very connected people; both Amelia and Pam functioned as sort-of-party-planners. They also happened to be the maid of honor and the best man, respectively. I asked Tara and Arlene to be my bridesmaids, and Eric asked Tray and Lafayette to be his groomsmen. Jason walked me down the aisle on what was, up until now, what I considered the most perfect day of my life. Things had gone wrong, as they tend to do at weddings, but walking down the aisle in a gorgeous gown that made me feel like a million bucks, towards the most handsome tuxedo-clad man I had ever seen, surrounded by my loved ones, I couldn’t imagine a better day. Eric’s aunt Elin and her boyfriend Henrik, and Eric’s cousin Lina and her husband, flew down from Sweden for the wedding, as did my cousins Claudine, Claude, and even Hadley and her son Hunter from New Orleans. We spent our honeymoon at a beautiful resort in Hawaii.

When we returned to real life, we decided that we wanted to wait a bit before having kids. I went back to school, and Eric went back to the bar, and in the fall we hosted our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Christmas was hosted at Tray and Amelia’s.

During my spring break week, we went to Sweden to visit, and Elin was thrilled to have us. In the summer, we decided to take advantage of my time off, and we travelled. We spent a few amazing weeks in Europe. While on a train to London, we fell in conversation with a woman and her adorable two-year-old daughter. She was blonde haired and blue eyed, and absolutely precious. Eric and I shared a look, and I knew that it meant that we were on the same page. We wanted to have a baby. So, by the time our first wedding anniversary passed, I had already thrown away my birth control pills.

Now, it was November. I had missed a period, and suspected that I might be pregnant. It seemed crazy to me that it happened so fast, but I couldn’t deny the signs. That was why tonight, I had wanted to cook a special dinner, tell Eric about my suspicions, and then take the three (yes, three!) pregnancy tests that I had bought from the pharmacy. But Eric had gotten called to work as I was starting dinner, so my plan had been spoiled.

But as I was sitting at home alone, it was as if the pregnancy tests were calling to me. I couldn’t handle the suspense; I needed to know if I was really pregnant. I figured that I could take the tests, and at least if this was a false alarm, and I wasn’t pregnant, I wouldn’t build Eric up for disappointment.

So, I drank as much water as I could, and took all three tests. I couldn’t contain my squeals of joy, or my tears, when I saw that each test said the same thing: I was pregnant.

Eric and I were going to have a baby.

I obviously hadn’t thought far enough ahead, because I realized that it would be absolute torture to wait until Eric got home to tell him. He wouldn’t be home until practically the next morning. I needed to tell him! But I didn’t want to get in the way at the bar if it was super busy, which it often was on Saturday nights.

I decided to call Pam.

“Yes?” she answered.

“Hey, Pam,” I said, still smiling.

“Sookie. What is it?”

“Um, is it very busy there tonight?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s a decent night,” she replied. “Why?”

“It’s just… I had a surprise for Eric,” I hesitated. “But if it’s too busy, I…”

“Oh my god,” she interrupted.

“What?”

“You’re preggers,” Pam gasped.

“What?”

“You’re totally preggers!”

“Hush, Pam,” I scolded her. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“Fine,” she snickered. “It better be a girl, so I can train it to go shopping with me.”

“Oh jeez, Pam,” I chuckled. “Yes, if we have a daughter… in the future,” I emphasized, “she will go shopping with her Auntie Pammy.”

There was a moment of silence on Pam’s end. I thought I maybe heard a sniff.

“Fine,” she finally said, but it sounded like more of a sigh.

“Fine what?”

“I’m going to call in a favor with someone so that you and your husband can get out of here,” she said.

“Really? With who?” I asked.

“Chow,” she said. “He owes me.”

“Okay! I’ll get ready and be there as soon as I can,” I smiled into the phone.

Instead of getting all dolled up, I decided to wear the same dress that I wore the night that Eric and I met. My red and white sundress. That night had been the start of the rest of our lives together, and tonight was the start of a brand new life, in a way.

***

I walked up to the bar and waited for an empty stool, much as I had my first night at Fantasia. I knew that Eric hadn’t seen me yet.

He smiled when he did see me. It made me warm and fuzzy inside to know that Eric’s face still lit up in my presence.

“Hello there, sweetheart,” he said in his sexy bartender voice. I knew he was teasing me, because he knew that I didn’t like being called ‘sweetheart’.

“Hello, Mr. Northman,” I winked.

I watched him turn around and make a drink, which he placed in front of me.

“Here you are, Mrs. Northman,” he smiled at me.

“No thanks,” I said, biting back my own grin.

“You don’t want a gin and tonic?” he asked, surprised. It was my signature drink, after all.

“No thank you.”

“Do you want a long island iced tea?” he asked me. Lafayette had got me into drinking those.

“Just water’s fine,” I smiled.

“You come into my bar and you just order water?” he teased me, placing a glass in front of me.

“I hope that’s okay,” I smiled apologetically. “It’s gonna be like this for a while.”

“For a…” his eyes shot up to mine, and I knew he understood my meaning. I just nodded and smiled.

Eric said nothing, but walked around the bar. He stood in front of me, and scooped me up bridal style. He carried me into his office, where he sat down on the couch with me on his lap.

“Hi,” he smiled, and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around him. He kissed my lips, my nose, and my forehead.

“So?” he asked.

“So…” I was smiling big.

“You’re…” he searched my eyes.

“Mhm,” I confirmed. “We better get that minivan,” I joked. Eric had been adamant about still having a ‘cool’ car when we were parents.

“Fuck, Sookie,” Eric laughed, kissing me deeply. He ran his fingers over my still flat belly. “I can’t believe it,” he almost whispered.

“I know,” I covered his hand with mine, and rested it on my belly. He pulled me closer to him, and rested his face in the crook of my neck. I stroked his hair as we sat quietly for a minute.

“I want to go home and celebrate so bad,” he murmured into my skin.

“Well then it’s a good thing that Pam called Chow to fill in for you,” I replied.

“She did?” he looked up at me.

“Yep.”

“Did you tell her?”

“I just said I had a surprise for you,” I laughed.

“Then let’s get out of here,” he smiled.

We got up and walked towards the parking lot, Eric’s arm wrapped around me.

“You didn’t want to say goodnight to Pam?” I asked.

“Nope,” he smiled down at me. “I want to go home.”

“Okay.”

On the drive home, I told Eric about the secret plans I had had for tonight. He was glad that I didn’t wait to tell him. Eric was touching me, in one way or another, for the whole ride. He held my hand, rested his hand on my leg, and occasionally brushed his fingers over my belly.

“There’s nothing to touch right now,” I laughed.

“I know,” he smiled. “But soon there will be. And there’s still a baby in there, even if it’s, like, tiny.”

My husband was adorable.

When we got home, Eric showered while I heated up some pecan pie for us. It would do as a sort of celebratory cake. We put on our pajamas, and snuggled into our bed with our pie. When we were done, Eric told me to stay in bed while he brought the dishes into the kitchen. I smiled. I knew Eric had a protective side, and I couldn’t even imagine what he was going to be like when I was very pregnant, or when our baby was born. I couldn’t wait.

He got back into bed, and we snuggled up.

“I love you,” I whispered to him.

“I love you,” he said, kissing my lips. “More than I ever thought I could love another person.” The feeling was mutual.

Our clothes came off slowly, and our lovemaking was gentle. It was sweet and loving, and so very perfect, that when I finally screamed my release, I felt a few tears spill down my cheeks. Eric kissed them away, and I snuggled into him, as I loved to do.

“Thank you,” I said quietly.

“Anytime,” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“Not what I meant,” I laughed into his chest.

“I know,” he said, running his fingers through my hair. “I should be thanking you, though.”

“Why? We did this together.”

“We did,” he smiled. “We made a new life together. And we made a new life for ourselves.”

“That we did.”

“We should send Bill flowers, or something,” he said.

“What! Why?”

“Because if he wasn’t such a fucking asshole, you might never have walked into my bar, wearing that adorable little dress,” he looked down at that dress, which was currently on the bedroom floor.

“Maybe not,” I smiled. “Did you ever think we’d be here?”

“In your bed?” he teased.

“No!” I laughed. “You know what I mean.”

“Honestly? I hoped we’d be here the moment you walked into the bar. And I knew I would do anything to make it happen that night when I held you in my arms while you were sound asleep, in my bar… That sounds so fucking cheesy,” he laughed.

“No,” I sniffed, “it’s sweet. You’re sweet.”

We laughed and joked some more, and then we talked more about the adventure we were about to start together. I knew that all of the loss and the pain that both Eric and I had faced in our pasts was all leading up to this. We had found each other, loved each other, and now we had this life together, and it would only get better from here.

I fell asleep huddled up to Eric, his hand resting on my belly.


End file.
